OSCE witnessed a significant increase in violence in eastern Ukraine
OSCE observers witnessed fierce fighting in the Donbas. In the three days from November 7 to November 9, more than 4,000 violations of the ceasefire were recorded, and over the past week, more than 7,000, as stated by the principal deputy chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Alexander Hug, at a briefing in Kyiv, UNIAN reported.
“The security situation along the line of contact in eastern Ukraine remains unstable. Over the past few days SMM observers witnessed particularly heavy fighting in the ‘hot spots’ throughout the territory of the Donbas,” he stressed.
“Last week, overall we have registered almost 7,000 violations of the ceasefire. Until Wednesday this week, numbers of the recorded violations went above that mark. The total number of violations was more than 4,000 in just the period from Monday to Wednesday,” Hug said.
At the meeting of the participants of the Contact Group in Minsk on September 21, an agreement on the withdrawal of forces and weapons in the Donbas was signed. The document assumes the establishment of security zones in three areas: Zolote, Stanytsia Luhanska and Petrovske.
In Zolote and Petrovske, forces were withdrawn; however, as reported by the OSCE SMM observers, they could not inspect the territory because it has not been cleared of mines by the parties to the conflict. At the village of Stanytsia Luhanska, a withdrawal of forces did not take place.