OSCE monitors register some 6,000 ceasefire breaches in Donbas over past week

Almost 6,000 ceasefire breaches were registered on the contact line in eastern Ukraine over the past week, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug told a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

The monitors also registered 28 weapons deployed in breach of the agreements on weapons withdrawal from the contact line in the past week: five weapons on the Kyiv-controlled territories and 23 weapons on the territories of the self-proclaimed republics, he said.

On Wednesday, SMM monitors registered a motorcade composed of 50 road vehicles, including armored vehicles, which was heading northwest from Luhansk in the direction of the populated area of Zholobok, Hug said.

Monitors registered the presence of two anti-aircraft systems in Muratovo yesterday, he said.

Hug said the monitors continue seeing situations of travel restrictions. Fourteen such situations were registered on the territories uncontrolled by Kyiv and three were registered on the territories controlled by Kyiv in the past week, he said. The LPR has long declined to give monitors access to the entire R-66 motorway, he said. Monitors also faced such restrictions from the DPR in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, he said.

SMM patrols sometimes see situations of intimidation, Hug said.

Seven road vehicles, which had no number plates and were carrying armed people, blocked the way of an OSCE SMM patrol in Novoazovsk on Wednesday. The vehicles surrounded the monitors for 20 minutes, after which they were ordered to leave the area, he said.

Hug also said that today the SMM has 653 monitors, of which 565 are working in eastern Ukraine.