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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Artillery fire prevents OSCE observers from inspecting chemical plant in Donetsk

OSCE observers failed to establish what weapons were used to deliver a strike on the Donetsk chemical plant because of the risk of coming under artillery fire

© ITAR-TASS/Konstantin Sazonchik

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Amnesty International finds evidence of extrajudicial executions of civilians in Donbass

VIENNA, October 22. /TASS/. Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) failed to establish what weapons were used to deliver a strike on the Donetsk chemical plant because of the risk of coming under artillery fire, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission said in a report.

The Mission’s report of October 20 was put on the website on Wednesday.

Observers confirm that “at 12:08hrs the SMM heard a loud explosion originating from the Kuibyshev district (7km west of Donetsk airport).”

“The SMM was later informed by several interlocutors that this had been the explosion of a warehouse of the Donetsk state chemical plant which had allegedly been hit by artillery. At 16:30hrs, while attempting to visit the site, the SMM witnessed incoming mortar fire within 150 metres of its position and immediately returned to base,” the report said.

{article_photo:755205:'Media OSCE rejects German military assistance in Ukraine':'right':'50'}Patrolling buffer zone

The buffer zone in eastern Ukraine will be patrolled together with representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the self-procalimed people’s republics, and the Ukrainian and Russian military, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission said in a report.

“In Luhansk the SMM met commanders of two Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) sectors. They said that they were still waiting for instructions to deploy at patrol level. They had been told that they would be deployed in patrols of four, consisting of one Russian officer, one Ukrainian, one ‘representative’ of ‘LPR’ led by an OSCE monitor,” the report said.

“...And that they would travel in OSCE vehicles. The SMM explained that it could not transport anyone other than mission members in OSCE vehicles and that the SMM’s mandate did not foresee leadership of JCCC patrols,” it said.

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OSCE Eastern Ukraine

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