On Monday 27 February, the principal deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine, Alexander Hug, called for both sides to withdraw their heavy weapons in eastern Ukraine, and said that without this withdrawal there will be no change on the ground. According to the Minsk agreements of February 2015, these weapons should no longer be on the contact line.
"Unless the weapons are removed, the situation will not change”, Hug told a small group of journalists, including from EUROPE, adding that if the heavy weapons are withdrawn, " a lot of damage and tension can be reduced".
The situation on the ground is far from being calmed. "We still register hundreds of ceasefire violations every day, if not thousands", Hug stated. Between 20 and 26 February, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) witnessed an increase in violence "by approximately 9% overall". "What is most worrying [is that there is an] almost 4 times increase in the use of weapons that should not be there", he said. On 24 February, there had been 2,841 violations noted by the OSCE mission, with another 593 the following day, and 446 the day after that.
Hug was not optimistic. "The ingredients for further flare up persist at the moment. There are two causes for this tension: the presence of heavy weapons in this security zone, and the close proximity of the positions in these areas", he said. "What is missing is an action on the sides to remove these weapons and to build a distance between the sides – and unless this happens, a flare up as we have seen at the end of January, beginning of February, is likely, and the damage it might have will be high on the civilian population there”, he added.
Hug stated that the humanitarian situation was dramatic in certain areas of the fighting. "The longer it lasts, the more they continue to suffer. And if any argument could be found, then I believe it’s the humanitarian one. There should be no political agenda that overrides these concerns", he said. Between 1 January and 24 February 2017, 16 civilians were killed and 59 were wounded in the violence.
Hug also spoke about the difficult work of the OSCE mission, which is regularly targeted. "We have had quite a bit of interference in our work”, he said. The latest example is on 24 February in Yasynuvata (controlled by the People's Republic of Donetsk), when a patrol, which was trying to launch a drone to monitor possible shelling of the Donetsk water filtration plant, was targeted by armed men, who also stole the drone. From 13 to 19 February, the OSCE mission was denied access to an area 33 times, 27 of these denials occurring in areas not controlled by the government. "In areas not controlled by the government, restriction is more severe, aggressive and intimidating in its nature than in areas controlled by the government”, Hug said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)