Representatives of JCCC and DPR Defense Ministry come to Zaitseve to verify info on Ukrainian shell hitting local school
ZAITSEVE (Donetsk region). March 3 (Interfax) - Representatives of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) and the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) have arrived in the village of Zaitseve, where a local school building was hit by a shell, an Interfax correspondent reported from the scene.
DPR militia forces reported earlier that a shell had hit a school building in Zaitseve village as a result of a strike carried out by Ukraine's military.
The village of Zaitseve is a north-western suburb of the Donetsk region's town of Horlivka, located near the contact line in the armed conflict area in Donbas.
During their visit to Zaitseve, JCCC representatives recorded the Ukrainian army's shelling of DPR positions located in the village.
"Now you can hear that they have opened small arms fire from the direction of Zhovanka and Bakhmutka. Gunfire continues, even though we are here," a JCCC representative told reporters.
The DPR Defense Ministry said that members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) had refused to visit Zaitseve and record the destruction.
"We asked the OSCE to come here, to the school, and record the shell hit and destruction at this social sector facility. But they said they had more important things to do. It is with regret that I say this," Eduard Basurin of the DPR Defense Ministry told reporters.
Tensions are escalating in Zaitseve, he added.
"Shelling of Zaitseve began once again at 7:00 a.m. and continued until 9:00 a.m. In addition to this, snipers are working here all the time. They are trying to bypass the locality and push us out of it. They are provoking us. The Ukrainian side's representatives at the JCCC are not responding to it," Basurin said.
Militiamen also showed to reporters fragments of projectiles and mines that had been fired by Ukraine's military against DPR positions in the past two days.
"You see that BMP-1 [infantry fighting vehicles], Rapira, anti-tank guided missiles and tank shells have all been used against our positions in the past two days," a representative of the DPR army headquarters command in Horlivka told journalists.