Pro-Russians re-deploy heavy arms in east Ukraine: OSCE
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says its observers have detected pro-Russia forces re-deploying heavy weapons in eastern Ukraine despite the Minsk peace agreement struck earlier this year.
“Despite claims that the withdrawal of heavy weapons was completed, the SMM (Special Monitoring Mission) continued to observe the presence of heavy weapons,” the OSCE said in a report released on Wednesday.
The intergovernmental organization added that its monitors observed three 122-mm howitzer D-30 guns being towed by trucks and another one stationary in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), and a T-64 battle tank as well as a 100-mm anti-tank gun in neighboring Donetsk region.
The Vienna-based body further said that SSM members “heard unidentified explosions as well as small arms fire in Shyrokyne in the afternoon of April 28.”
On April 18, Donetsk leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko insisted that territories captured by the pro-Russia forces must be legally recognized, further reiterating that the ceasefire accord brokered in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in February is not adequately implemented by Kiev.
“Ukraine doesn’t want to resolve all the issues,” he said in an interview with the state-funded BBC. “If you agree to resolve something, then you need to act and move forward, and resolve everything that’s included.”
“If that doesn’t happen, then the Minsk agreement is unfulfilled, and it renders all the meetings in Minsk pointless,” Zakharchenko added.
He also claimed that the Western-backed Ukrainian government is preparing for a war over eastern Ukraine, an allegation Kiev denies.
Crisis unabated
On April 19, the UN put the number of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine at 1,228,090, noting that a total of 154,635 children were among them.
The UN human rights office in Geneva said on April 17 that at least 6,116 people have been killed and 15,474 wounded since the tumult was triggered last April.
It said the actual number of casualties could be significantly higher and expressed increasing concern that the repeated violation of the shaky ceasefire aimed at ending the conflict would further worsen the human rights situation in the volatile region.
The UN office also reported that nearly 400 civilians have been killed since the beginning of 2015 either in indiscriminate bombardment of residential areas or by landmines and unexploded ordnance in areas held by pro-Russia forces as well as those under the control of the government in Kiev.
MP/HJL/HMV
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