VIENNA, February 20. /TASS/. The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has reported the increased use of heavy weapons in Donbass, which are prohibited by the Minsk agreements, resulting in the growing number of casualties and damages, OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid said on Sunday.
"OSCE SMM recorded increased use of heavy weapons proscribed by the Minsk agreement, resulting in rapidly increasing reports of damage and casualties," she wrote on her Twitter account. "Putting the lives of civilians at risk is unacceptable. I call on the sides to withdraw heavy weapons from the security zone, adhere to the ceasefire and protect civilians."
The situation along the contact line in eastern Ukraine took a turn for the worse in the morning of February 17. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics report the most massive shelling by the Ukrainian military over the past months. There have been no reports of deaths, but one civilian woman was wounded and the shelling damaged some civilian facilities.
Amid the mounting threat of combat actions, the self-proclaimed republics on Friday announced the evacuation of civilians to Russia. On Saturday, the Donbass republics announced general mobilization.