Moscow - Russian military representatives at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) will be leaving Debaltseve for another populated locality in eastern Ukraine amid escalating tensions, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) said in a report posted on Jan. 23.
“The deterioration of the security situation in Debaltseve and environs, since the Grad attack on 19 January, caused considerable concern for the Russian Major-General who stated that, in consultation with the General Staff in Moscow, he intended to evacuate all Russian Federation officers to Soledar (77km north of Donetsk, government-controlled), as of 21 January,” the report said.
“According to the Russian Major-General an official letter stating that the Russian Federation representatives to the JCCC would continue to execute their mandate in Soledar had been handed to the Ukrainian Major-General who in turn stated that he and his officers would remain in Debaltseve and continue to perform their duty,” the mission reported.
It also said that SMM members deployed at the DPR-controlled Uspenka checkpoint “observed that the flow of outbound traffic was very heavy with 96 vehicles.”
“The SMM spoke with a group of civilians, men, women and children of different ages, who were leaving “DPR”-controlled area for the Russian Federation. The interlocutors, coming from Donetsk, Makiyivka (16km east of Donetsk, “DPR”-controlled), Horlivka (40km north-east of Donetsk, “DPR”-controlled) Rozdolne (60km south-east of Donetsk, “DPR”-controlled) and Starobesheve (43km south-east of Donetsk, “DPR”-controlled) told the SMM that they were leaving because of the recent shelling and social and economic problems they faced living in “DPR”-controlled areas,” the report said.
