The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has said its monitors maintained restricted patrolling in the occupied city of Luhansk on November 21 and November 22 due to the blocking of a number of streets by armed men.
"On November 21 and November 22, the SMM saw that an area in Luhansk city, with radius of up to approximately to 600m from 38 Lunacharskoho Street, was cordoned off. On both days, inside the cordoned-off area, the SMM saw about 100 unidentified armed persons, most of them masked (or hiding their faces) and wearing white tape stripes on both arms. In the same area, the SMM also saw four stationary armored personnel carriers (APC) (one at each location) in Kotelnykova (BTR-variant), Lermontova Street (BTR-variant), Kotelnykova Street (BTR-80), and at Polskoho Street (BTR-70)," the OSCE SMM said in a spot report.
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It is also reported that from the afternoon of November 21 until the evening of November 22, the SMM also noticed that there were neither radio nor TV signals available in the hotels where the SMM is accommodated.
"The SMM has taken additional security and operational measures, such as recalling staff to base early on November 21 and maintaining restricted patrolling on both November 21 and 22," the report says.