ZELENE, Donetsk Oblast - Members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) have started to verify and record the corps registry numbers of the mortars that have been pulled back by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and have arrived at their permanent location and storage site in the Ilovaisk district on Nov. 5.
The registry numbers are being copied down in some special forms, an Interfax correspondent reports.
A convoy of trucks carrying nine 82mm mortars withdrawn by the Russia-separatist forces from the contact line, which was accompanied by officers of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination and the OSCE, has arrived at the weapons storage site in the settlement of Zelene in the Ilovaisk district, an Interfax correspondent reported earlier from the ground on Thursday.
The Donetsk People’s Republic defense ministry started on Nov. 5 to implement the final stage of the weapons withdrawal from the contact line in Donbas. The militants are pulling back their mortars with calibers under 120mm in the direction of Ilovaisk.
Eduard Basurin, a senior Russian-separatist forces military official, told Interfax that the withdrawal is due to be finalized by the end of the day.
