It is premature to draw conclusions about the actions of the OSCE monitoring mission in Donetsk, which supposedly left town before the attack by the Armed forces of Ukraine (AFU). This opinion was expressed by the head of the Duma Committee on international Affairs Leonid Slutsky in an interview with “Tape.ru” on Friday, February 3.
“If they really gone, then perhaps it’s not quite right, in accordance with their mandate and increasing tension. If they have not left and will return, perhaps today, then it’s a different situation,” — said the Deputy.
This Slutsky stressed that the objective of the mission in this situation was “honk the OSCE and the world community about the ungentlemanly behavior of the Ukrainian side”. The MP admitted that the actions of the OSCE representatives could not answer this task, and “with high probability their conduct in this situation can be interpreted as cowardice”.
“They should be there for monitoring such situations”, — he said.
Day 2 February on YouTube there was a video which captures how three cars of the OSCE mission to leave town. Late in the evening of the same day, Donetsk was fired from “Hurricane” MLRS “Grad” Ukrainian security forces.
Clashes in the South-East of Ukraine intensified on January 29. The locals called the fighting near Avdeevka most intense from August 2015. Sides used heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers.