The monitors of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE SMM) do not provide any information from the video monitoring cameras mounted on a tower in Shyrokyne (Donetsk region) to either party to the conflict in Donbas, OSCE SMM First Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.

Hug told Interfax-Ukraine that the photographs and videos filmed by a monitoring camera would be used and analyzed exclusively by the OSCE SMM, and that the information was being transmitted in an encrypted form and was not being provided to anyone else.

The location of the camera is most appropriate in terms of the range of visibility, because it allows for monitoring of both sides of the dividing line, he said. The location of the camera was picked in discussions with all interested parties and was agreed upon by everybody, including the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Hug said.

He said that the camera was operating non-stop and was currently in the test mode. After the testing the information received from the pictures would be used for reports and monitoring, Hug said, noting that the OSCE SMM could also consider the issue of installing a large number of cameras in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff told Interfax-Ukraine that since the video monitoring cameras have been installed in Shyrokyne the number of shellings has been on the decline there.

"It [the number of shellings] is on the decline in Shyrokyne. The fire is very intensive in Horlivka and Donetsk, it is not so in Shyrokyne," Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff Vladyslav Selezniov told Interfax-Ukraine.