Interfax: OSCE SMM reports weapons pullback in Donbass in line with Minsk accords

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(Interfax – October 5, 2015)

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) reports the process of pulling back weapons from the dividing line in Donbass in compliance with the Minsk agreements.

In the districts controlled by the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) the monitors have noticed the withdrawal of 30 main combat tanks (T-64 and T-72) from three districts, on three routes to two storages, as it was earlier announced to the mission, the OSCE SMM said in the Oct. 4 report released by the OSCE press service on Oct.5.

Also on Oct.4 in the LNR combat training area near the settlement of Uspenka, 23 kilometers southwest of Lugansk, the OSCE SMM spotted 12 self-propelled howitzers (122mm 2S1 Gvozdika), the deployment of which corresponds to the pullback line. Meanwhile, at the LNR-controlled firing range near the settlement of Kruglik, 31 kilometers away from Lugansk, where the exercises were being held without a live fire drill, the monitors have spotted 17 tanks (T-64) on the same day.

Meanwhile, on Oct. 4, the Ukrainian Armed Forces informed the OSCE SMM on the details of the route for the pullback of tanks in addition to the earlier provided information about arms depots, as well as weaponry which will be withdrawn under the Minsk agreements.

It was also reported that the OSCE SMM monitors have examined three places storing heavy weapons of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the location of which corresponded to the pullback line.

The monitors said that all previously spotted weapons were located in one area, several weapons were absent in two other areas.

Meanwhile, on the same day the OSCE SMM repeatedly visited two sites with heavy weapons of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). Despite the fact that at both sites the number and types of weapons corresponded to the SMM data, the monitors found that a self-propelled artillery system (Gvozdika) was replaced with another one, the number of which did not correspond to the previously reported data.

Meanwhile, the SMM said that on Oct. 4 a mission patrol was denied access to a storage site of DNR heavy weapons.

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