Spot Report by the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): Small-arms fired close to SMM UAV near Staryi Aidar

On 11 April an SMM patrol consisting of five monitors and two armoured vehicles was positioned about 2.5km south of government-controlled Staryi Aidar (20km north-west of Luhansk) and about 2km north-west of the contact line. At 13:00 the SMM monitors were outside the vehicles and started flying a mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). At 13:06, while the UAV was flying at an altitude of 120m  over a UAF position about 200m south-south-west of the SMM’s position  the SMM heard ten shots of small-arms fire also about 200m south-south-west of its position, assessed as aimed at the UAV. The SMM immediately recalled the UAV, which landed without any damage. The Mission left the area immediately and informed the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) about the incident and asked it to follow up. The SMM had informed the JCCC beforehand about its plans to fly the UAV. This is the second incident involving SMM UAVs in the last seven days.