You're reading: OSCE mission says conflicting parties must not create threats to lives of Donbas residents

The conflicting parties in eastern Ukraine deliberately put lives of local residents under threat by pulling forces closer to infrastructure sites, Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine Alexander Hug said.

This week OSCE SMM monitors have not recorded any incidents where local residents happen to be detained or come under fire, Hug told a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday. But this is not because the parties have minimized the risks, in fact quite the opposite: they are pulling their military hardware and personnel closer to civil infrastructure sites. For instance, this Monday two armored personnel vehicles stopped outside a school, armed members of the DPR [self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic] showed up in Debaltseve’s hospital, while several servicemen and some camouflaged military vehicles approached residential buildings in Kominternove and Pavlopil, he said.

Hug urged the stopping of these tactics that threaten civilians’ lives. If ethical arguments are not taken into account here, legislative measures should be, he said.