You're reading: OSCE: Situation in eastern Ukraine relatively calm

As of 1800 on March 5, the monitors of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) assessed the situation in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone as relatively calm.

“The SMM observed no violence in the Luhansk region. The SMM monitored the movement of numerous Ukrainian Armed Forces convoys. It verified that a convoy of weapons moved by the Ukrainian Armed Forces the previous day remained in situ,” reads the report posted on OSCE website on March 6.

Monitors reported that near government-controlled Novoselivka Persha (45km north-east of Donetsk), the SMM had met a Ukrainian Armed Forces convoy consisting of nine howitzers; and five armored tracked vehicles.

“The SMM monitored the convoy to a location described by the convoy commander as the end-point. The SMM intends to re-visit the location to verify that the weapons remain in situ,” reads the report.

At the Donetsk airport, the SMM saw 12 men, who, according to a camouflaged member of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) were Ukrainian soldiers captured following the DPR take-over of the airport.

“The DPR member said an additional 100 Ukrainian soldiers were being held at the airport. The SMM observed the bodies of what appeared to be three Ukrainian soldiers and an unidentifiable fourth body. The DPR member said an additional 20 bodies were thought to lie under rubble at the airport, awaiting removal, which, he said, had been delayed because of security concerns and lack of required equipment,” reads the report.