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Developments in eastern Ukraine

OSCE monitors refute reports of their coming under fire in east Ukraine

Journalists of the Russian television channel REN TV confirmed they had come under fire

© Alexander Zykov/TASS

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Representatives of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have not come under fire in the locality of Shirokino in east Ukraine’s Donetsk Region, the OSCE said on Twitter.

"The OSCE_SMM confirms NO fire targeted at our monitors today near #Shyrokyne. Though we have heard fire in vicinity of Shyrokyne," the organization said.

Read also

OSCE drones register shelling of east Ukraine's Shirokino by Kiev troops — daily update

Earlier Tuesday, the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said a group of OSCE observers and Russian journalists came under fire from the Ukrainian armed forces on Tuesday near Shirokino.

"When the OSCE joint monitoring mission was moving in the inhabited locality of Shirokino to control the regime of ceasefire, the convoy came under fire from the positions of the Ukrainian armed forces," the Donetsk news agency quoted an army spokesman as saying.

"A group of Russian journalists also came under fire," the agency said.

Journalists of the Russian television channel REN TV confirmed they had come under fire. They said the driver of the camera crew was wounded.

Regular talks of the participants of the Trilateral Contact Group on east Ukrainian settlement comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE were held in the Belarusian capital Minsk on February 10-12.

A 13-point Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk agreements was adopted at the February talks.

The package in particular included an agreement on cessation of fire from February 15, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine, including enforcement of a special self-rule status for certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

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OSCE Eastern Ukraine

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