Heavy weaponry still remains on contact line on both sides in eastern Ukraine - OSCE SMM
Heavy weaponry still remains on the contact line in eastern Ukraine, speaker of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) Michael Bociurkiw said.
The heavy weaponry, which should be pulled back, still remains on the contact line on both sides, he told a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
The SMM speaker said that on October 5 and October 8 the monitors have seen a guided anti-tank missile system in the Kyiv-controlled Novotoshkivske settlement, on October 9 and October 10 a SMM unmanned aerial vehicle spotted seven tanks and other military hardware in DPR-controlled Komsomolsk and 23 tanks near Solntseve.
Bociurkiw also noted the low level of honoring the agreements regarding the keeping place of previously withdrawn heavy military hardware.
The weapons are not being kept at the places where they should be after the pullback, he said. The OSCE SMM also faces cases when the freedom of movement of SMM monitors is restricted, in Donbas, in particular, DPR armed representatives hamper the access of mission monitors to places where weaponry is withdrawn, and the monitors were twice denied access in the Donetsk region to the Kyiv-controlled territory, the mission speaker said.