You're reading: OSCE monitors observe 120 trucks, trailers loaded with coal heading for Russia

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (OSCE SMM) observed a line of 120 trucks and trailers loaded with coal and heading for Russia in the populated area of Dovzhanske controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR).

“At the international border crossing between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in ‘LPR’-controlled Dolzhanskoe [Dovzhanske] [84km south of Luhansk], the SMM observed 120 civilian trucks and trailers waiting to cross into the Russian Federation. The SMM saw that all trailers were loaded with coal,” the SMM said in a report issued on Tuesday based on information received as of 7.30 p.m. Aug. 24.

One of the truck drivers told SMM monitors that “usually he had to wait for 24 hours, while sometimes it took 48 hours to proceed to cross the border,” the report says.

SMM monitors also saw “a queue of 65-70 vehicles, mainly civilian, waiting to cross into the Russian Federation at the international border between Ukraine and Russian Federation in ‘LPR’-controlled Chervonopartyzansk [64km south-east of Luhansk],” it said.