Members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's special monitoring mission were involved in three life-threatening incidents on May 2 in the government-controlled towns of Pisky near Donetsk and Avdiyivka, and east of Shyrokyne near Mariupol.
Four 82-millimeter shells hit a sand hill in the direct vicinity of the OSCE monitors in the government-controlled town of Pisky 13 kilometers northwest of Donetsk. The monitors escaped unharmed the moment the situation allowed, the Special Monitoring Mission said in a report for May 3, released on Monday.
Following the first incident, the same monitoring team heard 152-millimeter shell salvoes 14 kilometers northwest of Donetsk in the government-controlled Avdiyivka. The OSCE monitors hid themselves in an underground shelter and managed to leave the place following a shelling attack that had lasted for five minutes. None of the monitors was injured, the report says.
A motor vehicle carrying OSCE monitors was hit by a bullet from a position northwest of the monitors’ emplacement when it was traveling eastwards to Shyrokyne 20 kilometers east of Mariupol.
The OSCE monitors registered 698 explosions in the Donetsk airport on May 2, their intensity reaching its peak between 12.45 p.m. and 5 p.m. (271 explosions). The fire was being delivered with heavy mortars and artillery systems, heavy machineguns, fire arms and combat tanks, the report says.
