12 Oct 2018 16:44

Three children killed in Donbas over past week - OSCE SMM

KYIV. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) registered over 6,600 ceasefire breaches and the deaths of three children in Donbas last week, the Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), Alexander Hug, said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

The parties have violated the ceasefire over 218,000 times this year, Hug said.

Three children were killed and one was injured in the past week, he said.

Twenty-eight children have been killed or injured this year because the conflicting sides have not withdrawn forces and weapons and mines are still in the soil, Hug said. These are not accidents or errors, Hug said.

Over the past week, the SMM registered the presence of a T-64 tank in the village of Verkhneshyroninske, which is not controlled by the Ukrainian military, and a 152mm howitzer in Deliyevka, which is, he said.

Both pieces of hardware, as well as another 3,000 seen by the SMM this year, violate agreements signed by the government, Hug said.

A source in the office of DPR human rights commissioner Darya Morozova said five people were killed and ten wounded over the past week as a result of Ukrainian attacks.

"Five DPR soldiers were killed on the territory of the DPR on October 5-11, 2018," the source told reporters.

Ten people, including nine DPR soldiers and one civilian, were wounded in that period, the source said.