Approximately 50% of all ceasefire violations are reported in the triangle formed by Donetsk Airport, Avdiyivka and Yasynuvata, Alexander Hug, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine has told a press conference in the occupied Donetsk Wednesday, Dec 14.
”The OSCE is aware that the situation at the contact line remains very unstable, and we continue to note an unacceptably high number of ceasefire violations along the contact line in the known hotspots,” Hug said.
He noted that approximately 50% of all those violations are reported in the triangle formed by Donetsk Airport, Avdiyivka and Yasynuvata.
The rest of the violations are registered in the area between Svitlodarsk and Debaltseve, east and northeast of Ukrainian-controlled Mariupol, as well as west and north of Horlivka, and sporadically also in the western part of Luhansk region.
The mentioned hotspots are located near or in civilian areas ”where civilians live and work,” Hug said. He said that the OSCE SMM patrol had visited the site of shelling at the Mayorsk checkpoint where a man was killed and two more were injured on Wednesday morning.
”The patrol of the SMM had been present shortly afterwards on the scene of the incident. It had observed there a dead body of a male civilian in the vicinity of the `zero` checkpoint of the Ukraine Armed Forces in the Mayorsk crossing area. The body observed by our patrol had a gunshot wound to his head,” he said.
The OSCE SMM and its patrols continue to follow up on such reports, including checking in the hospitals where other injured ”are allegedly being treated or have been treated,” he said.
”The sides must start to undertake measures that will effectively protect civilians. Positions and weapons must be disengaged away from areas where civilians need to cross and move. It is about time that both sides – the so-called ”DPR” (self-proclaimed Donetsk People`s Republic) and the Ukraine Armed Forces – understand that weapons don`t belong there where civilians move about,” Hug said.
