VIENNA, July 28. /TASS/. A monitor of the European security organization OSCE received a fragmentation wound while monitoring the situation in the much-troubled township of Shirokino in Donbass, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine said in a report.
It said fire had been opened at a group of monitors from a distance of 50 meters.
The situation in Shirokino was quiet when the team of monitors entered the village. They did it at around noon on July 27 and unfolded two observation points.
Right after that, the monitors started registering exchanges of fire that was opened from the northeast, northwest and south.
When the mission members heard sniper shots, the head of the team ordered to fold up observation and to leave Shirokino. At that moment they saw three men hiding away behind a building to the north of their position.
A shot was heard and a moment later an explosion occurred five meters away from the leader of the patrolling group, who was knocked down.
He was wounded by a concrete fragment and his helmet was pierced. After the incident, the group headed for Mariupol where there wounded man received first medical aid.
The OSCE said the man had received insignificant contusion and a bruise of the right leg.
Shirokino has been one of the spots of highest tensions in Donbass until recently. The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic had to evacuate all the residents from there on June 16.
On July 1, the DPR declared the township unilaterally to be a demilitarized zone and the self-defence units moved out of it the next day. The deputy chief of the SMM, Alexander Hug, confirmed a full withdrawal of forces.
On the face of it, units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue occupying positions in the vicinity of the township.