Russia and the forces under its control in the Donbas prepared for at least a week for their assault in late January on the Ukrainian-held front-line city of Avdiyivka, the Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. mission to the OSCE Kate Byrnes said on Feb. 9.
In a statement delivered for the organization’s Permanent Council in Vienna, Byrnes said that recent OSCE reports provide clear evidence of a Russian military buildup near Avdiyivka before serious fighting broke out there on Jan. 29.
“A week before the assault began, the special monitoring mission observed trucks carrying boxes of ammunition assessed as matching the shape and size of MLRS rockets in the separatist-held town of Khrustalnyi,” Byrnes said.
Two days before the assault began, the mission’s unmanned aerial vehicle spotted 45 military-style trucks 500 meters from a railway station in separatist-held Amvrosiyivka, which lies only 15 kilometers from the Russian border, Byrnes went on.
Separatists harassed the mission’s monitors and delayed them from leaving the site, Byrnes said.
That same day, the monitors were denied access to another separatist-held town, Markyne, less than five kilometers from the Russian border. Satellite images show not less than six artillery positions on separatist-controlled territory within striking distance of Avdiyivka. Combined Russian-separatist forces have been expanding their positions in Avdiyivka in the past six months – including into areas on the Ukrainian side of the line of contact.
“This is a fight for which Russia and the separatists had prepared,” Byrnes said. “As soon as the fighting started, combined Russian-separatist forces blocked the SMM’s access to Yasynuvata – and kept the restrictions in place for the next three days.”
Byrnes also noted that despite the fighting near Avdiyivka decreasing over the past few days, the situation in the region remains volatile. Within the triangle of cities Avdiyivka, Yasynuvata and Donetsk, the opposing troops are in dangerously close proximity to each other, and heavy weapons have still not been withdrawn from the war zone despite a ceasefire agreement being agreed by Russia, Ukraine, and the Russian-backed forces on Feb. 1.
The escalation of hostilities near Avdiyivka, a war-ravaged near-frontline city some 12 kilometers north of occupied Donetsk, started on Jan. 29. At least 20 people, both civilians, and military, were killed in clashes or artillery shelling of residential areas, and the whole city lost power, heating and water supplies for a week.
By Feb. 5, the situation had stabilized and fears of a humanitarian disaster in the city eased.
According to OSCE Monitoring Mission Deputy Chief Alexander Hug, the escalation in Avdiyivka was one of the most dangerous incidents in the conflict in months. In a statement on Feb. 10, Hug confirmed that the OSCE had noted the close proximity between the opposing forces near Avdiyivka weeks before the sudden outburst of fighting.
“Last week the number of ceasefire violations recorded by the SMM increased threefold,” Hug said. “The number of explosions caused by firing weapons banned under the Minsk agreements, e.g. mortars, tanks, and artillery, increased by six times.”
According to Hug, opposing sides near Yasynuvata, some 10 kilometers from Avdiyivka, are positioned very close to each other – they are visible to each other by the naked eye and have been exchanging small arms fire, which could provoke fresh clashes. Along the both sides of the frontline in the area, the mission has recorded at least 106 banned weapons, including Grad multiple rocket launchers, Hug said.
The mission also noted the increased use of the Grad-21 multiple rocket launcher system, a highly destructive and indiscriminate weapon, which invariably causes damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of life when used close to residential areas. Over recent days, the OSCE mission has confirmed that at least 30 civilians were wounded during the hostilities in the Donbas, while eight civilians were reported killed.
Hug also said that both sides in the conflict were using heavy weapons banned from the front line under the Minsk II agreements of February 2015, and thus both sides bear responsibility for damage and death in the war zone.
“Only the sides of the conflict can pull the weapons away, stop using them, and put an end to the killing and injuring of civilians,” Hug said on Feb. 10.
