Spot report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): Outgoing explosions near SMM patrol north of the Zolote disengagement area

This report is for the media and the general public.

At 10:10 on 5 September, an SMM patrol consisting of six members and two armoured vehicles was positioned at a checkpoint of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on road T1316, approximately 400m from the northern edge of the Zolote disengagement area. Two patrol members were standing next to the vehicles and the others were inside the vehicles with the doors open when they heard seven explosions 150-200m south-south-east. The SMM assessed four of the explosions as outgoing mortar rounds (type undetermined) and the remaining as outgoing rounds of undetermined weapons. The SMM immediately left the area.

At 10:25, the SMM was positioned about 5km north-west of the above-mentioned checkpoint where, between 10:25 and 11:00, it heard 15 undetermined explosions 5-6km south-east of its position. The SMM returned safely to its base in Sievierodonetsk.

On the morning on 5 September, the SMM camera in Zolote (government-controlled, 60km west of Luhansk) recorded, between 08:35 and 10:13, nine explosions assessed as impacts of grenades fired from an automatic grenade launcher 1.4-1.6km south-east and south-south-east, all assessed as inside the disengagement area, south of its northern edge.