MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) does not confirm that its representatives were shelled by Ukrainian forces near Stanitsa Luganskaya.
"The ·OSCE· SMM cannot confirm reports by the media, alleging an SMM patrol was fired at near Stanytsia Luhanska today. The SMM patrol was in the area this morning. At 10:52hrs, while positioned on the bridge, the monitors heard several bursts of small arms approximately 400m to the south of their position," the mission said on its Facebook page on Monday adding that "the monitors assessed the fire as not targeting them, and left the area to assess the security situation better."
Earlier today a spokesman for people’s militia of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Andrey Marochko said that Ukrainian forces shelled the patrol of OSCE’s SMM near the checkpoint in Stanitsa Luganskaya.
At the meeting of the Contact Group at the start of January the sides supported the initiative of Russia’s envoy Boris Gryzlov on ensuring complete ceasefire on the territory of Donbass. This is the seventh attempt to fully observe the ceasefire regime in Ukraine’s south-east. At recent meetings of the Contact Group in Minsk the participants expressed regret over continuing violations of ceasefire regime in Donbass.
Ceasefire is envisaged by the Minsk accords signed on 12 February 2015, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko. The package of measures also envisages weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbass, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.