Fighting between Russian-backed forces and Ukrainian soldiers defending the nation continues to be fierce. The heightened violence mirrors the widening political split, with both sides also announcing a severing of ties and a hardening of a trade blockade that has taken hold since January.
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine deputy chief Alexander Hug told the Kyiv Post on March 3 that numerous cease-fire violations are taking place, that both sides refuse to withdraw troops and that the international observers have been denied access by both sides to hot-zone areas.
“Over the last week, the use of heavy weapons proscribed by Minsk agreements, including heavy artillery, mortars, tanks and multiple-launch missile systems was registered all along the separation line. Comparing to the mid-February, the number of explosions caused by artillery has increased by 350 percent, and mortar fire increased 20-fold.
The OSCE mission in Ukraine has registered at least 27 facts of multiple launching missile systems engagement, which is especially threatening, Hug told the Kyiv Post adding that the last week missile artillery had not been seen used in the battle zone.
On Feb. 28, the monitors heard at least 20 rounds of outgoing missile system fire in the Kremlin-controlled city of Horlivka. However, the signs of reactive artillery fire engagement were registered within the Ukrainian-controlled territory as well: on March 1, at least 40 salvos of 5-8 outgoing rockets were heard fired within 20 minutes near the village of Netailove, 22 kilometers west of the occupied Donetsk, Hug said.
Over recent days, the area north of Donetsk between the city’s ruined airport, Avdiyivka and occupied Yasynuvata remained the most hostile battle area, with as many as 47 percent of cease-fire violations taking place there.
The so-called Svitlodarsk rim near the embattled Debaltseve has seen 23 percent of the fresh clashes between Ukrainian armed forces and Russian-sponsored militants, and in the lesser degree, the bloodshed continues north of the occupied Horlivka. Although the OSCE mission has recorded the least intense fighting around Luhansk and Mariupol areas, heavy weapons banned under the Minsk agreements are used there with increasing frequency.
“Feb. 24 was one of the worst days the SMM monitors have seen in a long time in Donbas. On that day, as many as 2800 ceasefire violations had been recorded, which is 36 percent of the whole week amount.” Hug told the KyivPost. “The situation in Donbas is highly unstable for two reasons: the presence of heavy destructive weapons all along the contact line and the close proximity of hostile sides. In some areas, the opposing troops are separated by only hundreds of meters of neutral territory, which is highly provocative, and in any clashes, tension rises immediately.”
Amid fierce artillery and mortar fire exchanges in the Avdiyivka area on Feb. 24, the Donetsk water filtration station, which is situated exactly on the separation line, was badly hit by 82-millimeter mortars and thus suspended, with its personnel eventually evacuated due to deadly danger. After six days of seeking security assurances from the Russian side, the critically important plant territory was cleared of landmines only on March 2, and repairing crews started reclamation works.
“I don’t believe that the Donetsk water filtration station is being attacked deliberately. But this shelling shows complete disregard to civilian population’s needs. Apart from water supplies cuts for as many as 500,000 people in the region, the environmental disaster is endangering even wider region,” the OSCE mission in Ukraine deputy chief told.
Moreover, the attack against the Donetsk filtering station proves complete ignorance towards decisions on weapons and troops withdrawal along the frontline. Taking into account the maximum shelling range capacity for 82 millimeters mortars, which is up 3 kilometers, the plant was any way shelled from within the 15 kilometers zone of withdrawal for this kind of weaponry.
A regular agreement on pulling the troops and weapons back off the frontline had been made by during the Normandy format talks in Munich on Feb.18. Starting from midnight Feb. 20, a new ceasefire regime, the second one since late December, was meant to start, and weaponry must have been pulled back after at least 7 days of silence over the battlezone.
However, fighting continued with no respective signs of calming down.
The OSCE mission has numerous evidence of the mutual withdrawal being neglected by both Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed militants. On Feb. 20, the mission’s observing drone had spotted a possible battalion plus of least three T-64 tanks near the Ukrainian-controlled village of Aslanove some 20 kilometers north of Mariupol. Also, another aerial vehicle recorded three 122 millimeter D-30 howitzers near the militant-occupied town of Sakhanka 20 kilometers east of Mariupol near the devastated pre-war summer community Shyrokyne, Hug told.
Also, the OSCE mission is still being sporadically denied of access to certain zones of the frontline, which is undermining the mission’s activities in Donbas.
“In one way or another, both sides sometimes prevent the OSCE members from monitoring their possible violations along the separation line. We are reporting about those facts on the daily basis. However, the most intimidating and hostile attacks against the monitors are committed by the members” of the separatist group in Donetsk, Hug told the Kyiv Post.
The mission has reported about at least two attacks committed by the militant forces against the organization monitors. On Feb. 24 the militants opened fire near the observers monitoring situation at the Donetsk water filtration station and took up the mission’s drone, and exploded a hand grenade damaging the organization’s car on Feb. 25 near a village of Katerynivka in Luhansk region. Also, another one OSCE drone was confirmed downed by gunfire near Donetsk water plant on Mar.3.
After first two months of 2017, at least 76 civilians were wounded during hostilities, and 16 of them have died, mainly because of shrapnel from heavy weapons shells explosions, Hug said. According to Ukraine’ foreign ministry, at least 9,800 persons were killed in the war in Donbas since April 2014.
