ANKARA
The Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe has reported sightings of Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine late May to Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
"Soldiers in Russian uniforms and vehicles with Russian number plates have been seen by our Special Monitoring Mission [SMM]," said Iryna Gudyma, senior press assistant of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, on Thursday.
She gave an example of an incident dated May 28 from the organization's records.
"In Petrovske [pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory 38 kilometers southeast of Donetsk] the [Special Monitoring Mission] spoke to a young man who said that the former local holiday camp was currently occupied by an unknown armed group. He could not specify for how long this armed group had been stationed in the village. In the village, the [Mission] spoke to two women, both wearing military uniforms, with caps with Russian Federation Armed Forces insignia," the report provided by Gudyma said
Then two women in a vehicle with Russian Federation number plates stopped next to the OSCE vehicles, the report said.
"Two armed men, also in Russian Federation uniforms, exited the car and ordered the women to stop the conversation with the [Special Monitoring Mission]. Behind a tall fence inside the holiday camp, the SMM observed one infantry fighting vehicle," the report said.
This is not the first Russian troop sighting that has been reported in eastern Ukraine.
On May 20, the OSCE said two Russian servicemen captured by Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbass region had claimed to be "members of a unit of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation".
Russia has continued to deny that the country's armed forces are engaged in the fighting in Ukraine.
