Spot Report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): SMM team caught in fire exchange in Shyrokyne, one member injured by debris

At 11:15hrs on 27 July, an SMM patrol comprised of two vehicles entered Shyrokyne (100km south of Donetsk, 20km east of Mariupol) and found the village to be calm. The SMM established two separate observation points, some 120m apart.

At 11:25hrs, the SMM heard one shot of automatic grenade fire, outgoing from a north-easterly direction, impacting to the west of the SMM’s position on the western side of the village. Moments later, the SMM recorded a burst of small-arms fire outgoing from the north-west. After a period of silence, another burst of small-arms fire was heard outgoing from the north-west. The two separate firing instances seemed to be located some 300m away from the position of the SMM. At 11:45hrs, the SMM recorded small-arms fire which was assessed to be outgoing 200m from the south and directed to the south-west of Shyrokyne. At 12:05 and 12:32hrs, the SMM recorded two more separate series of small-arms fire outgoing from the north-east.

Right after this, the SMM heard in the air the sound of sniper rounds outgoing from the south, at which point the patrol leader instructed the patrol via radio to depart immediately. At the same time, the SMM saw three men behind a building 50m north of SMM’s position. A rifle shot was heard outgoing from there. Seconds later, an explosion occurred 5m from the SMM patrol leader, who was knocked down as a result. He was struck by concrete debris caused by the impact and his helmet was pierced.

The SMM left the area few minutes later and en route to Mariupol (government-controlled, 102km south of Donetsk) the paramedic in the team provided medical care to the injured SMM member. He was then taken to the hospital in Mariupol. He suffered a mild concussion and a bruise of the right leg. He has been released from hospital.