Militants of the"LPR" started fire into the air after seeing OSCE observers near the prohibited howitzers of 122 mm
Armed militants of the "LPR" started fire into the air after seeing OSCE observers. This is stated in the report of the monitoring mission of the organization.
"On December 5th, 2015 at 09:24, a patrol of SMM, consisting of four SMM observers and SMM medical officer arrived in two armored vehicles at the field near the controlled "People's Republic of Luhansk" ("LPR") Yurevka village (26 km to the south-west of Luhansk) where during previous SMM visits 12 towed howitzers were recorded (D-30 122mm), in violation of the relevant ceasefire line (see. SMM Daily report of 26th November 2015 and SMM Daily report of December 1st, 2015)", - said the statement.
"The SMM observers went to the howitzers (D-30 122mm) and at a distance of 100-150 m they noticed three armed men who were standing near one of the howitzers. SMM observers continued to move to the howitzers and when they were at a distance of 80-100 m from them one of the armed men opened fire into the air from automatic rifles and another aimed the tommy-gun at the SMM patrol. The armed men yelled at SMM", - says the source.
As a result, the SMM immediately left the field. No member of the SMM patrol was injured, SMM vehicles also weren’t damaged.
According to the source, later SMM informed the "LPR" authorities about the incident, they recognized the seriousness of the incident and promised to check it out and report to the SMM on the results.