You're reading: OSCE car blown up by landmine in Donbas, one monitor killed

One person with the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission was killed after a patrol car struck a land mine and exploded in the Russian-occupied part of the eastern Donbas on April 23.

Ukraine’s part to the Joint Coordination and Control Centre reported that the incident happened approximately at 11 a.m. local time, near the Luhansk Oblast city of Pryshyb, 800 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, and controlled by the Russian-backed militants. The control center said there were fatalities and wounded among the mission’s monitors.

“We can confirm that an OSCE patrol has been involved in a serious security incident in the Luhansk region,” the organization’s Twitter said, adding that more detailed information would follow.

Meanwhile, the organization’s principal chief, Sebastian Kurtz, confirmed on his Twitter page that one OSCE monitor was killed and more one wounded due to landmine explosion. Later, the mission specified that two persons were taken to hospital for further examination. In all, six monitors on two armored vehicles cars were reported involved.

In his statement, Kurtz said that those responsible would be held accountable after an investigation.

Meanwhile, a senior spokesperson to the Russian-backed militants Eduard Basurin laid the blame upon the OSCE monitors, claiming that the mission’s cars had deviated from the main road and were moving along secondary routes, “which is prohibited by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission mandate.” He confirmed that a patrol car struck an anti-tank mine.

Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko condemned the incident with condolences and condemnation of “all forms of steadfast prevention of the OSCE SMM activities by the militants.”

“The foreign minister was ordered to stay in constant coordination with the OSCE,” the president’s Twitter account reports, adding that the Ukrainian medics are ready to render an appropriate aid.

The incident is the first casualty loss for the OSCE mission in Ukraine, which remains active in the country, mainly in the embattled region of Donbas since March 2014.

As reported by the mission deputy chief in Ukraine Alexander Hug on April 21, as many as 582 OSCE monitors were deployed on both sides of the frontline in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in late April.