MOSCOW, July 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Military attaches of German, French, Italian and Spanish embassies in Moscow accepted an invitation from the country’s Defense Ministry and set off to Russia’s southern Rostov region to see the real state of affairs on the Russian-Ukrainian border, press services of the mentioned-above diplomatic missions told ITAR-TASS.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it invited military attaches from 18 countries accredited in Moscow to learn the real situation at the Russia-Ukraine border in the Rostov Region.

“Italy’s military attache has set off to the Russian border with Ukraine upon an invitation from the Defense Ministry,” the press service of the Italian Embassy in Moscow said.

German Embassy’s spokesman Robert Roode told ITAR-TASS that a representative of the German military attache staff was also participating in the visit to the Ukrainian border in the Rostov Region, adding that Germany considers the Defense Ministry’s invitation as “a measure of trust.”

Asked whether France also accepted the invitation, the press service of the French diplomatic mission in Moscow said “Yes, the French Embassy will also take part in the mission to monitor the situation on the border.”

Spanish Embassy’s spokesman said “our representative set off on the visit this morning and is expected to come back this evening.”

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Tuesday that “the ministry has taken a decision to acquaint foreign military specialists with the real situation in the town of Donetsk in the Rostov Region and the Donetsk cross point, which were subjected to artillery and mortar fire from the Ukrainian territory.”

“For this purpose, we have invited military attaches from 18 countries (the USA, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ukraine, China, Japan and others]) to visit the said area on July 15, 2014,” the high-ranking military official added.

Donetsk is a regional town with a population of 49,000 located 171 kilometers (106 miles) from the regional capital of Rostov-on-Don and bordering on the Krasnodon district of Ukraine’s Luhansk Region.

The multi-way automobile border-crossing point of Donetsk (its twin border checkpoint from Ukraine is called Izvarino) is one of the largest checkpoints in the Rostov Region.

Both the checkpoint and the town have been repeatedly hit by Ukrainian shells.