Heavy weapons are located along the entire division line in the area of the military operation in Donbas, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (OSCE SMM) Alexander Hug has said.
Weapons remain along the entire line, Hug told a briefing on August 12 via an intercom session from Donetsk region. The mission’s monitors saw two anti-aircraft weapon systems in the village of Luhanske, which is controlled by the LPR, on August 8 and four anti-aircraft weapon systems in the village of Mykhailivka, Donetsk region, on August 10, he said. Both these instances constitute breaches of the Minsk agreements, Hug said.
Hug said that the non-withdrawal of heavy weapons was also confirmed by locals in conversations with monitors. In this regard, Hug said it is important to monitor the implementation of the Minsk agreements and grant monitors access to the territories.
Hug said he has seen some improvements in the situation with access this week. To help monitors go through a bridge in the city of Schastia, Luhansk region, the LPR removed the mines installed there. A similar situation occurred in Zolote, where Ukrainian military did the same thing to provide access, Hug said.
At the same time, he stated the absence of improvements in the situation with ceasefire. Monitors registered 976 ceasefire breaches in Luhansk region alone in the past week, and 40 percent of them occurred at night.
Hug said the mission is now composed of 706 monitors, of whom 584 are working in the military operation area.
