Donbas ceasefire being marred, gunfire intensifying – OSCE

The intensify of gunfire has grown by 25% on both sides of the Donbas contact line over the past week, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Alexander Hug told a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

The OSCE SMM observed a 25% rise in the number of ceasefire breaches; the truce was breached 2,469 times throughout the contact line, which means the ceasefire was marred, Hug said.

The sides employed mortars, artillery, rifles, and heavy machineguns, he said.

Residential areas or their vicinity were hit in most cases, Hug said.

According to the OSCE SMM, the hostilities have led to 388 civilian casualties, including 68 dead and 320 wounded people, since the beginning of the year. Nineteen percent of casualties were children, Hug said.