OSCE Monitors Visit Lugansk Withdrawn Weaponry Sites, No Violations Found

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have visited weaponry storage sites of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in southeastern Ukraine.

VIENNA (Sputnik) – "The SMM made a first visit to an ‘LPR’ heavy weapons permanent storage site, the location and inventory of which were provided to the SMM on 2 December. The site met the criteria outlined in the 16 October notification," the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) said in a Friday report.

According to the SMM, both LPR and Kiev have provided the monitors with an inventory of their withdrawn heavy weaponry and the storage locations for the weapons and equipment, as requested by the SMM on October 16.

"The ‘DPR’ [self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic] had yet to provide the requested inventory of heavy weapons, or locations of designated permanent storage sites for these weapons," the SMM said on Friday.

Weaponry withdrawal is one of the provisions of the Minsk peace deal, signed by representatives from Kiev and Ukraine’s self-proclaimed southeastern people’s republics in February.

Ukraine’s southeast was targeted by Kiev’s special military operation in April 2014, after residents of Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to recognize the new coup-installed government.

The February peace deal signed between the conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital is the second ceasefire agreement – the first one, reached in September 2014, failed to hold.

The OSCE has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Minsk ceasefire provisions, including weaponry withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine.