MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. The Ukrainian forces controlled cameras of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the OSCE (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and used them to detect and then adjust fire on troops’ positions of the Donetsk People’s Republic, DPR head Denis Pushilin said on Tuesday in an interview with Solovyov Live television channel.

"They have been openly adjusting fire, whether intentionally or unintentionally - we have numerous questions," he said. "You must understand that on the positions, the positions, where these right radicals were staying at, they had laptops with installed software, which controlled cameras of the OSCE SMM."

"In other words, if they could not see something, they remotely turned a camera to the angle they needed, zoomed in and out… They have been detecting our positions and then adjusted fire in their direction," Pushilin stated.

He added that this is how they directed fire on infrastructure facilities - gas distribution stations and water purification stations.

Russia’s military operation in Ukraine

The situation at the line of engagement in Donbass escalated on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most massive bombardments by the Ukrainian military in recent months, which damaged civilian infrastructure and caused civilian casualties.

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Russia recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as of the beginning of 2014.

Russian President Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics, he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.

The DPR and the LPR launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.