VIENNA, November 1. /TASS/. Russia urges the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine to prepare a report about shelling, destruction and casualties in Donbass since the start of the conflict in 2014, 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.
He stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have intensified the shelling of Donbass. "According to the SMM, an attack was conducted on the residential neighborhood Trudovskiye on the outskirts of Donetsk from the western and southwestern directions on October 26, in which a two-story house was damaged," he said, citing one of the shelling episodes.
"We once again urge the SMM to prepare a spotlight presentation on shelling episodes, destruction and causalities in Donbass since the start of the conflict," Balakin stressed.
He also said the Ukrainian Armed Forces obstruct the disengagement of forces in Stanitsa Luganskaya.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces are blocking the disengagement of forces in Stanitsa Luganskaya, although the SMM has reported the necessary for that seven-day ceasefire more than 55 times," he said.
"Ukrainian troops have occupied the disengagement sections in Zolotoye and Petrovskoye in violation of the Contact Group’s Framework Decision of September 21, 2016 and are actively strengthening their positions there - from building new trenches to beefing up Ukrainian Armed Forces’ positions with manpower and hardware. All this has been repeatedly confirmed in reports of the SMM," Balakin said.
The Russian diplomat said that additional measures on de-escalation are needed for ensuring a stable ceasefire, first of all a ban on shelling of settlements, making public ceasefire orders. "Representatives from the [self-proclaimed] Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics have done this. While the Kiev authorities are refusing. Do the Kiev military have such orders at all?" Balakin asked.
After Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in a coup in February 2014, mass protests began in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, largely populated by Russian-speaking people. As a response, the Kiev authorities launched a military operation in Donbass in April 2014.