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OSCE SMM Spot Report 18/2021: A member of the armed formations threatened to shoot down one of the SMM’s mini-unmanned aerial vehicles near Vilkhivka
KYIV 8 July 2021
At 11:25 on 7 July, the SMM arrived at a site about 1.5km south-west of the southern edge of Vilkhivka (non-government-controlled, 40km east of Donetsk) to conduct an announced mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight to monitor the security situation in the area. At 11:30 while conducting the flight, a light utility vehicle, carrying two armed members of the armed formations, approached the SMM from a southerly direction. One of them requested the Mission to land the UAV, delete its imagery and leave the area or the aircraft would be shot down. The same member of the armed formations told the SMM to wait until he called his “superiors”.
At 11:40, the SMM landed the aircraft and left the area, without deleting the UAV imagery.