On January 21 the first deputy Head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine Alexander Hug held a briefing in Kiev where he explained his vision of the situation in Donbass. According to him, residents of the DPR and LPR do not want peace.

Alexander Hug reported that the previous week he had carried out an intense trip from Dnepropetrovsk to Donbass where he spent two days. Hug had managed to get into the hottest spots in the DPR and LPR, in particular, to Kominternovo, Shirokino, Gorlovka and the Donetsk airport.

The OSCE representative pointed out that the situation in Donbass remained tense and the ceasefire was not respected by both sides of the conflict. Besides, there was recorded the absence of the heavy military equipment in the areas where it should be stored. He emphasised that the withdrawn weapons had not been found on both the Ukrainian side and on the territory of the Republics. Hug did not precise, though, where the weapons had disappeared. His entire report was generalised, there was not given a single fact of violations by either side of the conflict.

Hug noted that near Mariupol there was observed the narrowing of the danger zone. According to him, the situation in the area of Gorlovka also remains tense; there, during a single day, ​​the OSCE registered 38 explosions and numerous skirmishes of small arms, with tanks and mortars also being used. Besides, the OSCE representative said that in Donbass there were no grey zones.

‘There have never been "grey zones”, there only exist areas under the effective control of the one or the other side. Of course, some movements are taking place there but these movements are not crossing the contact line. What is happening there in reality is that both sides are moving their positions closer to the contact line, and the positions that previously remained vacant are now being occupied for any tactical reasons. I urge both sides to step back,’ he said.

It should be noted that during his speech Hug made a statement which stunned many listeners. He stated that the residents of Donbass, who live in the territories of the DPR and LPR, did not want peace and did not agree with him when they were told that the militia had to stop.

‘People who live in Donbass, especially on the contact line, do not agree with me when I say that all this has to stop,’ said Hug.

However, the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. According to them, the OSCE representatives present the information in the way beneficial to Kiev. People do not understand why the mission is there if its representatives simply leave for a safe place at every shelling. Moreover, when the citizens tell them that it is the Ukrainian military who open fire at them, the OSCE does not react to their words at all.

‘We want peace. But not such peace which the Minsk Agreements bring us. Every day we live under shellings, we wake up and do not know whether we will live until the evening or not. Is it the peace? Let the OSCE live where we live! We want real peace, and how can we have it if the enemy stays on our land, five kilometres away. The order should be given and we should go ahead. We need to push the Ukrainian military away so that they could not shell us anymore,’ said Natalia, a resident of the Kievsky district of Donetsk.

http://nahnews.org/518837-sensacionnoe-zayavlenie-ot-xuga-zhiteli-dnr-i-lnr-ne-xotyat-mira/