You're reading: Armed men who attacked OSCE patrol in occupied Yasynuvata ‘arrested’

The armed men who attacked Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe patrols in the Russian-occupied city of Yasynuvata on June 20 have been arrested, the DAN media outlet, which is affiliated with Russian-backed forces, reported on June 21.

While the OSCE identified the men as “armed, so-called ‘DPR’ members” in its initial report of the attack, the Russian-installed authorities claimed the men were not from their forces.

They also claimed, without giving any evidence, that the incident was a false-flag operation by the Ukrainian secret services to “compromise the republic’s leadership and intimidate the OSCE mission monitors on duty.”

The Russian-installed authorities in the Donbas frequently make such claims, but have never given any evidence that Ukrainian secret services are operating in the parts of the Donbas where Russian-backed forces have seized control.

The OSCE said in its spot evening report on June 20 that two of its patrols had been violently attacked by two armed men in the Russian-occupied front-line city of Yasynuvata, some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.

The patrols, together consisting of four armored vehicles and twelve monitors, had stopped near a checkpoint at Yasynuvata’s railway station, standing about 150 meters away from each other, when the incident occurred, according to the report.

Some 80 meters away from one of the patrol groups, the monitors noticed “two men in military-style attire, one armed with an assault rifle (AK-type) walking in a western direction.”

At 11:06 a.m. local time, both patrols heard a burst of gunfire assessed as coming from the direction of the two men at the railway station.

“Then, the two men, both with their faces covered – one with a balaclava, the other with a scarf – moved towards the second SMM patrol and began to aggressively shout at the SMM. (The men) then left,” the OSCE press service reported.

As both patrols made an attempt to leave the area at 11:10, an armed man ran to one of the vehicles of the second patrol, tried to open the door on the driver’s side, and attempted to break the driver’s side window with his gunstock. He then ran to chase the second OSCE patrol vehicle.

“The armed man turned and pointed his assault rifle at the driver and front-seat passenger of the second vehicle of the SMM patrol. Both patrol members raised their hands in response. When the armed man moved to the side of the vehicle to try to open the front passenger-side door, the driver accelerated.”

As the SMM vehicle was driving away, the armed man hit the rear right-side window with his gunstock, causing minor damage. The SMM then saw him fire a burst of small-arms fire into the air, followed by three shots that the SMM assessed were fired at the patrol vehicle, the report says.

The gunfire did not hit any of the vehicles, and by 11:21, all of the patrols were leaving the area to the organization’s base in the Donetsk city. All of the monitors got back safely.

Following the incident, the OSCE approached the Joint Coordination and Control Center, a cross-frontline liaison body, to conduct an investigation of the assault upon the unarmed civilian monitors.

The Ukrainian delegation to the JCCC condemned the attack on June 21, calling it “crude violation of the Minsk agreement,” by members of illegal armed forces from “certain districts of Donetsk Oblast.”