Fighting in Donbas continuing, not all heavy weapons withdrawn - OSCE deputy chief monitor

The fighting in Donbas is continuing, and the conflicting parties have still not withdrawn all the heavy weapons from the line of contact, OSCE Deputy Chief Monitor to Ukraine Alexander Hug said at a Skype-briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

The area surrounding the Donetsk airport still remains one of the centers of the fighting; OSCE monitors have recorded 91 explosions and firing there since Tuesday, Hug said.

While it is hard for the monitors to assess the type of weapons used in exchanges of fire between the parties, they have learned to do this based on the distance, weather conditions, and the speed at which ammunition rounds fly, he said.

Six 82-mm mortar rounds were fired on Tuesday alone, while the use of this type of mortar, as well as other weapons, including 120mm mortars, tanks, and artillery guns smaller than 100mm, is banned, the parties have signed an annex to the Minsk agreement which stipulates this, and these weapons must be withdrawn, Hug said.

On December 5, monitors spotted twelve 120mm howitzers in the village of Yuryivka, the Lutuhyne district in Luhansk region, controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk people's republic (LPR), he said.