Spot report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): Explosions and small-arms fire close to SMM patrol near Holmivskyi

This report is for the media and the general public.

On the morning of 16 August, an SMM patrol consisting of five SMM members and two armoured vehicles was positioned on the north-eastern edge of Holmivskyi (non-government-controlled, 49km north-east of Donetsk). The patrol was part of two patrols, positioned on both sides of the contact line in order for both patrols to facilitate and monitor adherence to the ceasefire for repairs of a powerline by Voda Donbassa and maintenance to an SMM camera at the entry-exit checkpoint in Maiorsk (government-controlled, 45km north-east of Donetsk). Three SMM patrol members were outside the vehicles and the two others were inside. A member of the armed formations, armed with an automatic rifle, and a Voda Donbassa worker were speaking to the SMM, while two other armed members of the armed formations (also with automatic rifles) and two Voda Donbassa workers were in a van parked nearby. At 09:14, the three patrol members outside the vehicles heard an undetermined explosion approximately 500m north and another undetermined explosion about 500m south-south-east, followed by about ten shots of small-arms fire 100-150m north and north-west, two of which were assessed as flying over the heads of the three patrol members who were outside the vehicles.

The patrol got into their vehicles immediately and left the area and later returned safely to its forward patrol base in Horlivka (non-government-controlled, 39km north-east of Donetsk). The armed man and Voda Donbassa worker boarded the van, which departed the area. The SMM notified the Ukrainian Armed Forces side of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination and the armed formations about the incident and requested follow-up.