Ukraine accuses pro-Russian separatists of deliberately burning agricultural lands
Under high fire risk conditions, militants in the Donbas are deliberately firing flares, aiming directly at fields and settlements and creating fires, said Yevhen Marchuk, Ukraine’s representative in the Security subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group.
“Temperatures in the Donbas are high now in the literal and the figurative sense. There is a lot of deadwood there, not to mention the fields with ripe grain. When the wind is in our direction, the separatists shoot flares, but not in the air for illumination, but aiming directly at fields and settlements,” Marchuk wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.
He noted that during the day such flares are barely visible, and the sound of firing is virtually inaudible.
“And such a flare doesn’t burn out in the air, but on the ground where it landed. And in such weather, half the horizon can be set on fire. And the OSCE SMM sees nothing,” Marchuk concluded.