Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) comes under small-arms fire in Novooleksandrivka

On 20 August at 16:44, as the SMM was landing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk) it heard at least five bursts of small-arms fire (possibly AK), from a wooded area approximately 50m to the west. On hearing the gunfire, four monitors operating the UAV, who were standing between the two SMM vehicles (positioned 60m apart), immediately lay flat on the ground and crawled back to the vehicles before rapidly leaving the area (all within a two-minute period). One SMM paramedic remained in one of the vehicles during the incident. No one was injured and no damage was caused to SMM vehicles or the UAV.

The UAV had flown over the nearest known Ukrainian Armed Forces position located approximately 900m west of the SMM’s position. The nearest known “LPR” positions are located approximately 1-1.5km east of the SMM’s position when operating the UAV. The SMM patrol was positioned on high ground and was highly visible.

The Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination was informed.