LUHANSK. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Ukrainian troops have not allowed a patrol of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) from travelling on the highway near the populated locality of Popasne in Donbas, the OSCE SMM press service told Interfax.
"At a checkpoint on the eastern outskirts of the populated locality of Popasne (controlled by the government and situated 69 kilometers west of Luhansk) a serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces banned a patrol from travelling on Highway T0405 southwestwards, referring to the orders of his commander," the OSCE SMM press service said in a statement.
Restricting access to OSCE SMM monitors, the Ukrainian military is hiding the forbidden weaponry deployed in the area of Popasne, spokesman of the People's Militia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) Andriy Marochko said.
"We know it for sure that a lot of towed howitzers, mortars and tanks are deployed in the Popasne region. In efforts to conceal these weapons the Ukrainian command ordered that the military personnel ban patrols of the mission from travelling to the area of deploying forbidden weapons," Marochko told reporters on Thursday.