During July 22-24, 2016 only, militants supported by the Russian Federation shelled positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 189 times. They defiantly and blatantly continue using weapons which had to be withdrawn from the contact line under the Minsk Agreements long time ago.

Positions of the Ukrainian militaries as well as civilian infrastructure, including residential houses, were shelled from 122 mm caliber guns 89 times, from 120 mm caliber mortars - 30 times, from 82 mm caliber mortars - 50 times. In the area of settlements Novozvanivka, Trudovske, Avdiyivka 6 combat clashes took place, which claimed lives of Ukrainian militaries.

We continue recording presence of large numbers of Russian heavy weapons which had to be withdrawn from the contact line under the Minsk Agreements.

Target-oriented escalation of the security situation comes amid massive supply by the Russian Federation of military equipment, weapons and ammunition as well as new mercenaries and military personnel of the Russian Army to Donbass.

Since the beginning of July 2016, 19 trains carrying ammunitions and military hardware and equipment have crossed the uncontrolled part of the Ukraine-Russia state border. In violation of the norms of the international law and commitments in the field of the export control Russia has brought 19 tanks T-72, 3 multiple rocket launch systems “Grad”, 2 self-propelled guns, 11 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles.

Russia has also brought 130 storage reservoirs (6600 tons) of fuels and lubricants (circa 560 tons), 9 motorcade convoys, including 44 trucks with ammunitions, 34 tank lorries, and 77 vehicles.

Russian drones have illegally crossed Ukraine-Russia border three times and after completing their intelligence tasks in the Ukrainian airspace returned back to bases on the Russian territory.

There is a clear line to harass observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, impede their activities of monitoring and verification in accordance with the mandate, which was approved including by the Russian Federation.

The above is supported by the following evidence: continuous restriction of SMM OSCE observers’ access to the regions that are currently not controlled by Ukraine, including those regions pertaining to the Ukrainian-Russian national border, blockage of the Mission’s activity by not granting permits for the expansion of their presence in the region; organization of prepaid and staged protests, and the ‘unarmed resistance’ to the SMM OSCE’s attempts to properly carry out their functions.

It is obvious that the claim about the so-called “internal Ukrainian” conflict in Donbas, which is being actively pushed onto the world public by the Moscow’s officials, is simply an attempt to turn the attention away from Russian Federation’s actual role in the conflict as an interested side, a participant, and an organizer.

Such Kremlin’s rhetoric is evident in the position of Russian Federation’s delegation at the Minsk negotiations. During negotiations, instead of making the illegal military groupings in Donbas to fully carry out the Minsk Agreements, the delegation played a two-sided role of being a by-stander as well as an advocate for the illegal military groupings in certain areas of the Donbas region.

Russia behaves in a similar manner in regards to the agreements reached in the “Normandy format” – it either refuses to carry out the terms of the agreements or consciously tries to twist its context. This is particularly relevant to the framework principles of separating military forces along the lines agreed upon by the military advisors of the “Normandy format” dated June 15-16, 2016.

Therefore, we must conclude that the Donetsk and Luhansk militants’ leaders, as well as their Kremlin overheads, have consciously chosen to further escalate the conflict instead of peacefully settling it through a consecutive implementation of the Minsk agreement.

It is clear that armed provocations of the illegal armed formations will demand from the Armed Forces of Ukraine decisive action in response in order to make terrorists abandon their plans for conflict escalation.

The Ukrainian side will further steadily adhere to its commitments and will continue to do its utmost to stop killings in Donbas and to restore peaceful life, constitutional order, and respect for human rights in the temporarily occupied territories.

We demand that the Russian Federation, as a party to the Minsk Agreements, without any delay fulfils its obligations, withdraws its military, mercenaries and weapons from the territory of Donbas, halts the illegal flow of arms and military equipment to militants, and unblocks the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.

We appeal to the international partners to step up political and diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin in order to stop the dangerous escalation of tension in Donbas.