Foreign monitors under fire in east Ukraine, says OSCE
An Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) vehicle was hit with small-arms fire in an area controlled by Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists, monitors said on the organization’s website.
The incident, which did not cause any casualties, occurred Saturday close to Mariinka, a town some 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of de-facto rebel capital Donetsk.
Three OSCE observers accompanied by a paramedic and a translator were visiting the area in two armored vehicles to assess damage to a gas pipeline
About an hour after their arrival, the mission “heard the sound of one or two shots” and saw a hole in the window of one vehicles, the report said.
The head of the OSCE monitoring mission, Ertugrul Apakan, described the shooting as “entirely unacceptable.”
He said it followed another incident nine days earlier in rebel-controlled Gorlivka where monitors “were removed from their vehicles and forced to the ground at gunpoint.”
The conflict between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 9,000 lives since April 2014.