Russian-backed mercenaries have deployed more than 100 combat vehicles and howitzers close to the demarcation line defined in the Minsk agreement in eastern Ukraine.
The demarcation line is a 500km line of separation between Russian-supported rebels districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and the rest of Ukraine.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been monitoring the situation in eastern Ukraine, reported that Russian-backed rebels moved tanks, cannons and howitzers outside the designated storage areas as part of the Minsk agreements on the withdrawal of weapons.
The mission recorded weapons located along withdrawal lines but outside designated weapons storage areas in the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts:
- 82 main battle tanks
- 38 artillery guns
- 10 self-propelled howitzers
at 5 landfills near settlements:
- Pokrovka (36 km east of Donetsk)
- Kruglik (31 km southwest of Luhansk)
- Mirne (28 km southwest of Luhansk)
- Shimshinivka (27 km southwest of Luhansk)
- Miusinsk (62 km southwest of Luhansk).
At the same time, the OSCE’s mission visited areas near the border with Belarus in Chernihiv region. It also monitored the security situation in east and south-east Kherson region.
On top of that, the mission’s freedom of movement continued to be restricted, including at checkpoints of the armed formations in the southern Donetsk region and in the Luhansk region. Its unmanned aerial vehicles again encountered multiple instances of GPS signal interference, assessed as caused by jamming and probable jamming.