In total, five civilians were killed and four injured in Ukraine’s Donbas in the past 12 days and most of the deaths were due to heavy weapons use, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.
Observers confirmed in the past 12 days five civilian deaths near the contact line in the Luhansk region and four cases of civilians being injured in Donetsk region, Hug told a briefing conference in Kramatorsk late on Jan. 26. This is unacceptable as many were injured because of use of the heavy weapons that had been supposed to be withdrawn from the areas, Hug said.
Hug went on to emphasize that heavy weapons are in violation of the Minsk Agreements still deployed along the demarcation line in combat area.
OSCE monitors observe that the conflicting parties are too close to each other in many locations, particularly at Kominternove, at the Maryinka checkpoint, at the town of Novoluhanske, at Novhorodske, as well as in the areas near Svitlodarsk and between Popasna and Pervomaisk, Hug said.
The majority of these populated places are high-density urban areas where civilians live and important infrastructure facilities are situated, he added. The fact that the opposing sides are close to each other there leads to frequent cases where warfare begins unfolding in the areas, Hug said.
