MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. A Ukrainian subversive group has cut off electricity supply to two settlements in the Telmanovo district in the south of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the head of the district administration, Alexander Sursyakov, reported on Thursday.
He said that earlier in the week the group blasted two power transmission towers, leaving the settlements of Staromaryevka and Tavricheskoye without electricity.
Repair brigades could not restore electricity supply as positions of gunmen from the Aidar volunteer battalion were located nearby, the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.
"They can simply start shooting at repairmen. We are waiting for OSCE observers to settle the problem," Sursyakov said, noting that subversive activity attempts were getting frequent in the district of late.
They didn’t use heavy weaponry, but firearms could be repeatedly heard, the head of the district administration said. According to the republic’s ministry for coal and electricity, 167 electrical substations were destroyed across the Donetsk republic in summer. Almost all of them were restored.
During intensive combat operations, the Telmanovo district was repeatedly shelled by Ukrainian troops, and shelling was intensive in the summer of 2015. The main settlements of the district are situated close to the line of contact. Dozens of houses were destroyed, many civilians were killed or wounded.
In line with an agreement reached in Minsk at a meeting of the Contact Group on settling the situation in east Ukraine, a complete ceasefire was established from September 1 at the disengagement line in Donbass. Still, separate instances of fire are registered from time to time.
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine was deployed in late March 2014 and its mandate has been extended until March 31, 2016. The mission’s tasks are to observe and report in an objective way on the situation in Ukraine and facilitate dialogue among the conflicting parties.