Spot Report by the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): Man at checkpoint in Kozatske points gun at SMM patrol

This report is for the media and the general public.

On 5 March at 12:55, when an SMM patrol consisting of six members and two armoured vehicles was heading from west to east on a road in Kozatske (non-government-controlled, 36km north-east of Mariupol), it saw a man in military-type attire armed with an assault rifle (AK-74) standing at a checkpoint of the armed formations on the eastern edge of the village. The SMM also saw him pointing the assault rifle directly at the first SMM vehicle, which was then about 120m west of the checkpoint.

When the SMM reached a distance of approximately 100m west of the checkpoint, it saw the man kneel down and continue to point his rifle at the SMM vehicle. The SMM immediately stopped there. The driver of the first SMM patrol vehicle then slightly opened the door, and asked the man to lower his rifle and call his superior. The armed man used hostile language and said, in Russian, “Leave immediately, and if you come closer, I will shoot,” while continuously pointing his rifle directly at the first SMM vehicle.

The SMM immediately left the area towards west and returned safely to its base in Mariupol.