The ceasefire around the Donetsk airport is maintained only during inspections by civil and military monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

IENNA, April 7. /TASS/. Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have reported that Ukrainian forces are moving new heavy weaponry to the buffer zone in eastern Ukraine, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine said in its daily update Tuesday.

SMM listed four 100-mm anti-tank guns and four MTLB armored tractors positioned near the Mirnaya Dolina settlement. "On 6 April, near Mirnaya Dolina (government-controlled, 67km north west of Luhansk) the SMM observed four newly deployed 100mm anti-tank guns with crew and four anti-personnel carrier (MTLB), loaded with ammunition boxes," the report says.

Situation remains tense

The OSCE monitors said not all heavy weapons subject to pullout had been completely withdrawn from the buffer zone. Thus, according to the report, the SMM "observed three T64 tank emplacements in the area of Muratovo (government-controlled, 50km north-west of Luhansk)." Two more T-64 tanks were seen moving "east towards the line of contact," the monitors said.

The SMM also reported movements of seven infantry fighting vehicles (BMP-2) and two tanks on the territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), southeast of Luhansk. They did not say however which direction these vehicles were moving. One more tank of the Donetsk People’s Republics was seen near the settlement of Styla.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko ordered Ukraine’s army units and security forces to enhance coordination with the OSCE "to prove that the Ukrainian military were strictly observing orders of the supreme commander-in-chief and the Minsk agreements.".

According to the mission, the ceasefire around the Donetsk airport is maintained only during inspections by civil and military monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The mission said the situation around the Donetsk airport and the settlement of Shirokino remained tense.

"The local DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) commanders at the checkpoints along the route said to the SMM that the security situation in the area around Donetsk airport is only temporarily improving during high profile JCCC / Joint Centre for Control and Coordination/ and/or SMM visits and deteriorates immediately following the departure of such delegations," the SMM said in the report.