The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) is still recording fighting near the Donetsk airport and the village of Shyrokyne.
“The SMM, based on its monitoring […] observed that fighting continued in areas around the Donetsk airport and Shyrokyne, east of Mariupol,” the SMM said on March 24 in a report based on information available as of 6.00 p.m. on March 23.
In particular, the SMM heard 19 outgoing rounds originating from north of its location but could not ascertain the type or impact of the shelling on the morning of March 23, it said.
In the eastern outskirts of the government-controlled village of Sopyne, 15 kilometers east of Mariupol, the SMM heard “heavy engagement of small arms, machine guns, automatic grenade launchers and mortars.”
An SMM unmanned aerial vehicle observed outgoing mortar fire from a Ukrainian armed forces position near the contact line east of Mariupol on the evening of March 23.
The SMM visited the Joint Center for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) headquarters in Soledar. The JCCC incident log registering ceasefire violations indicated 95 such incidents between 08.00 a.m. March 22 and 08.00 a.m. on March 23. “The log also indicated that sixty of the reported violations had occurred in the villages close to Donetsk airport and that six Ukrainian soldiers were reported wounded,” it said.
