VIENNA, November 1. /TASS/. Observers from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) have reported foreign-made weapons in the inventory of Kiev troops in Donbass, in particular a US-made mobile radar system, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the OSCE, Dmitry Balakin, told a session of the European security agency’s Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday.
"Kiev continues pulling in armaments to the contact line. Over the past week, the SMM has spotted more than 20 units of Ukrainian Armed Forces’ military hardware in violation of the Package of Measures," Balakin said. Howitzers and electronic warfare systems are redeployed via the Rubezhnoye railway station, he said.
"Near Severodonetsk, observers have spotted foreign-made armaments" - AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder Weapon Locating System, a mobile radar system produced in the US, the diplomat said. "What for were these armaments, as well as the earlier spotted Buk anti-aircraft missile system dispatched to Donbass?" he asked.
The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, signed a 13-point Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements. The package was agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.
The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk starting from February 15 and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including prisoner exchange in the all-for-all format, local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.