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OSCE called the death toll of civilians in Donbass in 2016

00:51, 23.12.2016

The OSCE has called the death toll of civilians in Donbass in 2016, where the notorious «ceasefire» is known to continue. About 400 civilians in Donbass have become its victims. In addition, the OSCE has reported that throughout the year, members of the mission registered over 300 thousand violations of the ceasefire.

This was stated by the first deputy head of the OSCE Special monitoring mission, Alexander Hug.

‘From January to November 2016, the OSCE observers recorded 83 civilian casualties, as well as 305 cases of injury to civilians,’ said Hug.

He also noted that the representatives of the mission registered, throughout the year, over 300 thousand violations of the ceasefire regime, as well as more than 3,000 cases of the use of weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements.

The day before, the next OSCE report stated a sharp rise in attacks with heavy weapons. From 12 to 18 December, the use of heavy weapons in Donbass tripled compared to the previous week, the report said.

The OSCE mission added that the level of the ceasefire violations fluctuated, but remained consistently high. The observers say that they daily recorded hundreds of violations.

‘About half of all violations of the ceasefire, documented by the SMM, occurred near Avdeevka, Yasinovataya and the Donetsk airport,’ noted the mission.

The OSCE also pointed out that since December 18, the SMM had observed an increase in the number of the ceasefire violations in the areas around Svetlodarsk and Debaltsevo, without specifying which party had carried out these violations.

In recent days, bloody battles raged at the Svetlodarsk arc. There was reported a large number of the wounded and killed from the Ukrainian side. The LDPR also suffered losses. 

NATO also stated recently that the number of attacks in Donbass had reached a record.