An unmanned aerial vehicle of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) came under fire during a flight near the village of Chermalyk in Donbas. This is stated in the report mission from January 12th.
“Near government-controlled Chermalyk, small arms fire was assessed in the direction of an SMM mini-UAV,” the document says.
The people’s militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), in turn, accused the Ukrainian security forces of deliberate and prepared shelling of a drone.
“It is important to note that this shelling was planned in advance, since the Ukrainian militants were notified of the time and place of the drone launch in advance,” an officer from the DPR People’s Militia Department said during an interview with reporters.
He clarified that the Ukrainian security forces continue to deploy weapons and military equipment in the settlements under their control. In addition, according to the officer, the security forces are trying to conceal this equipment by obstructing the mission observers.
Earlier, on January 10, the People’s Militia of the DPR said that the Ukrainian security forces hinder the work of the UAV of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission at the contact line in Donbass. It was noted that the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine opened fire on the city from an 82 mm mortar.
On December 24, 2021, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, said that Kiev was preparing for a military solution to the conflict in Donbass. The mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has counted five times more ceasefire violations over the past two weeks, Zakharova noted.
On the same day, the representative of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic in the political subgroup of the Contact Group for resolving the situation in Donbass, adviser to the head of the republic on foreign policy, Rodion Miroshnik, drew attention to the fact that shelling of the territory is being conducted on a regular basis. According to him, there is a high probability of an escalation of the situation on the Ukrainian side, if there are appropriate internal political conditions for this.
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