The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe announced that its Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine has spotted several dozen multiple launch rocket systems and howitzers in the rebel-controlled Luhansk region.
The Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, os SMM, is an international observer mission created under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to facilitate a peaceful settlement of the ongoing War in Donbass in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.
European military observers said that it saw twenty-two BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, eight 2S1 Gvozdika 122-mm self-propelled howitzers, five 2A65 Msta-B 152mm towed howitzers and five D-30 122mm towed howitzers in non-government-controlled areas of the Luhansk region.
The OSCE press release said that artillery systems were spotted beyond the withdrawal lines, including some at an airfield.
The conflict began in 2014, and the Russian-backed rebels control large swathes of the region, including the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists has killed more than 13,000 people. Russia denies Western and Kyiv’s charges of direct involvement in the conflict.