“The Mission has no plans to withdraw/evacuate from Donetsk at this stage”, the OSCE SMM tweeted.
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Russian media cited Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin as saying the incident was “an outrage” and pledging to do everything he could to find those responsible.
The white sport utility vehicles were parked outside the hotel that houses the OSCE observers.
4 armored automobiles belonging to the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine’s japanese battle zone have been destroyed in a single day, the safety watchdog stated Sunday, describing the obvious arson assault as an try to limit its work.
“It seems that this sort of intimidation is aimed at stopping the OSCE from reporting what is going on in the area”, Alexander Hug, the deputy head of the monitoring mission, said in the capital Kyiv.
The OSCE vehicles are being covered after the fire.
Sunday’s arson attack follows a protest of about 300 people outside the OSCE’s hotel Thursday, when demonstrators held up banners criticizing the “silence and blindness” of the mission and sprayed red liquid from a hose onto the ground.
One Ukrainian soldier was killed, whereas 10 servicemen, a civilian lady and two youngsters have been wounded up to now 24 hours, Ukrainian army spokesman Oleksander Motuzyanyk stated in a every day televised briefing.
“The OSCE is reporting this violent attack on its civilian monitors in Donetsk just as it reports violent attacks affecting Ukrainian civilians in and around Donetsk, elsewhere in Donetsk oblast and in eastern Ukraine: objectively, impartially and promptly,” OSCE said.
The number of attacks on OSCE observers has increased in recent weeks in war-torn eastern Ukraine, where the conflict has claimed more than 6,800 lives in 15 months.
The Special Monitoring Mission on August 7 reported a “significant increase” in cease-fire violations at and around the Donetsk airport.
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The Western monitors said that coming under “targeted fire” had forced them to rethink their future operations in the region.
