OSCE SMM: The situation deteriorates in ATO zone, hostilities intensified considerably

WATCH IN ENGLISH

Last week, the security situation got worse in Donbas. OSCE SMM recorded 75% increase in number of ceasefire violations and more than 1,200 explosions attributable to mortars, tanks, artillery and MLRS, mostly in Luhansk region. A week before there were only 191 such explosions. This was reported by Alexander Hug, the First Deputy Chairman of OSCE SMM, during a briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “65% of the explosions were recorded in Krymske and Zholobok areas, another 30% – near Zolote and Pervomaiske,”- he said.

In the last week observers recorded 11 civilian casualties. “This includes eight men, two women and 15-year-old boy. All of them were wounded by shelling in residential areas,” said Alexander Hug. One of the shellings damaged Donetsk filtering station in Yasynuvata. As a result, local residents,  residents of Avdiivka and some districts of Donetsk were left without water.