MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - The situation in the village of Staromaryivka, which is located in the so-called gray zone in Donbas, has somewhat eased, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday evening.
"The situation has been somewhat defused at present. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross have appeared at the entrance to the village to provide local residents with foodstuffs and primary necessities. Near the village are officers of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Special Monitoring Mission, who are remotely monitoring the situation, including with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said in a commentary on its website.
The ministry said it is continuing to monitor the developments.
"We call on our Normandy-format partners and the OSCE to urge Kyiv to stop violent actions against local residents. For our part, we will be doing everything possible to protect the rights and interests of Russian citizens, wherever they are, including in Donbas," it said.
The ministry issued its commentary "in the wake of reports by a number of media outlets that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding in captivity 37 Russian citizens living in the village of Staromaryivka located in the gray zone."
"Based on the information available, the situation in the village is complicated," as "Ukrainian Armed Forces service members enter there from time to time to conduct so-called filtration procedures," the ministry said.
"They have imposed a kind of curfew, prohibiting residents from leaving their homes for identity checks," it said.
"Such procedures were particularly tough at the start of this week," the ministry said. "The citizens having passports of Russia and the DPR [self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic] had their documents confiscated and were subjected to violent treatment. This even spurred an escalation of armed activities, which was discussed at the October 27 meeting of the Contact Group. Fortunately, only buildings, not people, suffered from the gunfire," it said.
Some media outlets reported on October 26 that Ukrainian troops took the village of Staromaryivka, located in the gray zone in the near vicinity of Hranitne, which is controlled by Ukrainian government forces. Staromaryivka is separated from Hranitne by the Kalmius river. According to social media, the two villages are linked by a pedestrian bridge, which about 150 residents of Staromaryivka use to shop and visit a clinic in Hranitne, and schoolchildren from Staromaryivka go to school in the neighboring village.
In reply to reports that Ukrainian government forces took Staromaryivka, Kyiv insisted that they did not change their positions.
"Thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian troops, the boundaries of our units have remained the same," the Joint Forces Operation said on Facebook.
Kyiv said Ukrainian troops did not occupy the neutral zone near Hranitne.
"The Joint Forces command says that this information is false. This is yet another attempt by Russian illegal armed formations to discredit and accuse Ukraine of violating the dividing line. (...) The Ukrainian military positions remain the same," it said.
The Russian Investigative Committee said the same day that it intended to investigate the actions of Ukrainian troops in Staromaryivka on the line of contact in Donbas, where a number of Russian citizens live.