Ukraine seeks explanations from Russia on deployment of hi-end radar to occupied Donbas

The statement came during a meeting an OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on Thursday, September 30.

On September 23, the SMM saw a modern Kasta-2E1 radar station in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to international organizations in Vienna Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk said in his address.

According to the envoy, yet another proof of the supply of hi-end Russian military hardware to the Ukrainian territory, along with the shutdown of the OSCE mission on the Russian-Ukrainian border, emphasizes the need for effective discussions in the Council, which would allow opening new advanced patrol bases and improve SMM's technical capacity to implement the provisions of the Minsk Agreements, which provide for constant monitoring and verification of the Ukrainian-Russian state border, as well as the creation of a security zone at the border.

The head of the Ukrainian mission to the OSCE also pointed to the deteriorating security situation in eastern Ukraine.

Over the past week, the SMM registered 2,445 ceasefire violations, including 466 explosions, which is 155% more than in the previous week, he said.

It was earlier reported that in February, the OSCE SMM UAV had spotted Russia’s 51U6 Kasta-2E1 radar at a test site of the Russian-led armed groups near the village of Buhaivka in the non-government-controlled part of Luhansk region. This decimeter-range Russian mobile radar station is designed to detect aerial targets, including those flying at ultra-low altitudes. Given the fact that Ukrainian aircraft do not operate in the Joint Forces Operation zone, experts suggested that the Russians had deployed the radar to hunt for the OSCE SMM-manned UAVs.

im