The two images from new trenches from the OSCE are also in this area, a few kilometers to the east in Zolote, showing the current state of the war in the Donbas — little territorial changes, with both sides hunkering down with new trenches.

Newly mined roads

One of the more under-reported issues in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine is the continued use of landmines — for example, two months ago, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a statement stating that two million Ukrainians are affected by landmines, and over 1,600 civilians have been injured or killed by landmines and unexploded ordnances.

The OSCE SMM to Ukraine published two images of freshly-mined roads in the Donetsk Oblast, in both government and non-government-controlled areas.

(Source: Twitter / OSCE SMM Ukraine)

The included map makes clear the location of the mined roads — Dolomitne, near the Svitlodarsk Bulge and north of Horlivka. The area highlighted by the OSCE SMM to Ukraine was directly on the front line.

These aerial images are far from the only indications of newly-mined roads near the front line. On Friday, an OSCE SMM to Ukraine patrol was forced by a drunk separatist soldier to drive near a newly-mined path in Petrivske, south of Donetsk. Though the patrol passed through safely, the incident could have led to a far more tragic result:

While the patrol was considering the possibility for the first vehicle to drive east away from the mine and for the second vehicle to turn around and drive north to safely leave the area, a member of the armed formations carrying an assault rifle (AK-74) and displaying signs of intoxication approached the first SMM vehicle from the east and told the patrol to leave the area immediately and that it would not be permitted to proceed any further east. Despite the SMM pointing out the presence of the mine, he refused to let the first vehicle drive eastwards, thus leaving the first vehicle no choice but to drive back westwards once again across the freshly dug ditch filled with rubble near the identified mine. The first SMM vehicle then drove on the southern side of the road towards the crossroads as far as possible from the visible mine.

Worsening situation for civilians and monitors

As with each of the last four years, the situation in the Donbas worsened with the onset of summer, with an increase of fighting across the conflict zone and unnecessary danger posed to civilians and neutral monitors. Civilians were injured in non-government-controlled cities in the Donetsk Oblast in the last week, including from gunfire and shelling, and minor territorial shifts continue to take place along the northern front line.

This spring, the OSCE SMM to Ukraine relaunched its long-range drone monitoring program, with numerous drones operating to observe the uptick in fighting with the winter thaw. While these drones have revealed numerous flagrant violations of the Minsk accords, they have also been targeted, by far the most often by Russian-led separatist forces. As seen with the video of the anti-aircraft missile, Russian-led separatist forces are blatantly trying to reduce the OSCE SMM to Ukraine’s capacity to monitor the war.