OSCE SMM patrol comes under fire near Donetsk
On August 16, observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission came under fire on the outskirts of th settlement of Holmivskyi, which is 49 kilometers northeast of Donetsk, reported the mission’s press-service.
Three mission members patrolled on foot while two remained in the SMM cars. A member of an armed formation, carrying an automatic rifle, and a Voda Donbasa public utility company worker were speaking to the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) observers while two other rifle-bearing members of the armed formation and two more Voda Donbasa workers were in a van parked nearby.
“At 09:14, the three patrol members outside the vehicles heard an undetermined explosion approximately 500m north and another undetermined explosion about 500m south-south-east, followed by about ten shots of small-arms fire 100-150m north and north-west, two of which were assessed as flying over the heads of the three patrol members who were outside the vehicles.” the OSCE said in its report on August 16.
“The patrol got into their vehicles immediately and left the area and later returned safely to its forward patrol base in Horlivka”, the report said. According to the OSCE, the armed man and Voda Donbasa worker boarded the van, which departed the area. .
As reported last week, an OSCE SMM drone recorded the presence of twelve multiple-launch rocket systems in the territory of the facilities located in the town of Khrustalne which is controlled by pro-Russian militants, which is 56 kilometers southwest of Luhansk.