The monitors note high intensity in the East Ukraine and stress on the importance of adhering to the Agreement on disengagement of arms.
Kyiv, October 27, 2016. OSCE Special Monitoring Mission calls upon the Joint Center of Control and Coordination (JCCC) to make efforts to secure the armistice, demining and implementation of the framework agreements of August 21, said Alexander Hug, First Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) in Ukraine at a briefing held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. He emphasized that not a single key provision of the Minsk agreements has been fully implemented. “We need coordination and communication within the framework of the JCCC to withdraw the troops. In case of presence of political will, JCCC can provide effective control over the situation,” said the OSCE SMM First Deputy Chief Monitor. He reminded that last week Ukrainian and Russian side of JCCC secured ceasefire in Vasylivka controlled by self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR), which allowed repairing a pumping facility.
First Deputy Chief Monitor informed that intensity of hostilities in the ATO zone remains high. Several hundred incidents of ceasefire violation are registered every day. The epicenter of combat moved from the Mariupol sector to west and north-west outskirts of Horlivka, Svitlodarsk and its vicinity, as well as Debaltseve area since the end of previous week. “On Friday night (October 21 – ed. UCMC) our observers in Svitlodarsk heard over 90 attacks, and almost the same number was registered on the following night. Their colleagues heard 120 blasts in the adjacent Horlivka controlled by so-called “DPR” said Hug. The SMM camera in Shyrokyne registered 27 missiles of Grad multiple rocket launcher system on Friday night.
Hug also informed that the monitors registered at least four cases of civilians being injured on both sides of the contact line. For instance, an 81-year-old man tripped a wire near Shchastia when he was picking mushrooms and was heavily injured. An 11-year-old girl was seriously wounded in Seleznivka controlled by self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”) when she tripped a wire near a well. An 88-year-old woman sustained multiple fragmentation injuries in a shelling in Vynohradove. An elderly man accidentally sustained gunshot wounds from small arms in DPR-controlled Staromykhailivka.
“We need to set the politics aside and put an end to civilians’ suffering within the framework of JCCC,” appealed Hug.
