OSCE accuses Donbas warring sides of barring monitors' access to 2 villages on dividing line - Jun. 23, 2017

OSCE accuses Donbas warring sides of barring monitors’ access to 2 villages on dividing line

Published June 23, 2017 at 9:51 pm

A resident on May 15 shows the cellar shelter in his house in Donetsk Oblast’s Pisky, at the frontlines of Russia’s war 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. Few civilians have stayed in the area, which is marked by regular fighting in a war that has killed 10,000 people.

Photo by Volodymyr Petrov

DONETSK – Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) were this week denied access to the villages of Pisky and Trudovske, controlled by the Ukrainian troops and the Donetsk people’s republic (DPR) respectively, a senior SMM figure said.

At least 12 civilians are still living in Pisky but the Ukrainian troops did not let the SMM representatives in, SMM first deputy chief Alexander Hug told a press conference in Donetsk on Friday.

The DPR prevented SMM access to the village of Trudovske in Donetsk, as well as other areas in the region, Hug said. The medical staff at hospital N1 in Makiivka refused to provide information on dead and injured civilians, he said.