OSCE camera at Donetsk Filtration Station destroyed by shelling after one day of operation
A video surveillance camera set up by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) at the Donetsk Filtration Station (DFS) was shot at and destroyed.
“The OSCE SMM camera at the DFS worked for only one day, and was shot from the south and south-west. The camera was destroyed,” said the OSCE SMM report on its microblog on Twitter on Wednesday, which included photos of the damaged camera.
Alexander Hug, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM to Ukraine stated that before the camera was destroyed, it “saw small-arms fire”. “The truth is too uncomfortable for the sides,” he summarized.
Hug later announced that another less effective camera was damaged during the attack on SMM technology. “Now repaired and operational again,” the OSCE SMM tweeted later. The camera’s location was not specified.
At a press conference on Wednesday evening in Donetsk, Hug gave details of the shooting of the camera as well as information which OSCE SMM staff were able to establish while inspecting the damaged equipment and the poles the cameras were mounted on.
“On August 8 at 8:20, the camera recorded light-arms fire and both cameras ceased functioning. Today we visited the Donetsk Filtration Station and saw several bullet holes in the body of the camera and in the pole the camera is mounted on. We established that the bullets came from the south-south-east and south-south-west. The angle of the hit and the relief means that they were shot from 600-800 meters. Today after lunch, during our patrol, one camera at the filtration station was restored and is now operational,” the said principal deputy chief monitor of the OSCE SMM to Ukraine.
According to Hug, “the people’s determination to prevent the mission from observing how the ceasefire is observed is perfectly obvious”. He added that several hours earlier, the OSCE SMM heard two bursts and three single shots from a light weapon in the vicinity of the pump station in Vasylivka.
“The people behind these violations don’t want to let the mission monitor. Wherever the mission’s activity is limited, there are ceasefire violations,” the OSCE SMM representative concluded.