You're reading: UNIAN: OSCE SMM evacuates forward patrol base in Schastia due to shelling

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has announced it has evacuated forward its patrol base in the town of Schastia in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, due to mortar shelling and moved to Sievierodonetsk.

“Between 20:55 and 21:00 on August 30, whilst at the SMM forward patrol base in government-controlled Schastia (20km north of Luhansk), an SMM patrol comprising five SMM staff members and a paramedic heard four shots of under-barrel-grenade-launcher (GP-25) fire approximately 1km south of their position. At approximately 22:05 the SMM heard four explosions assessed as mortar rounds outgoing from an undetermined distance south of its location. Within a few seconds, the patrol heard and felt four impacts assessed as caused by mortar rounds landing within 200m or less of the forward patrol base,” the OSCE SMM said in its spot report.

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