OSCE SMM reports escalation of violence in east Ukraine

"It is with great regret I have to highlight an increase in [ceasefire] violations, and those who are involved in this do not improve the situation," he said at a briefing on Friday morning. Hug said both sides have been violating the Minsk peace agreements by not withdrawing weapons to the agreed upon storage sites. "On both sides of the contact line we note more and more weapons absent from the sites they were once withdrawn to," he said. Hug says that the OSCE SMM has not seen improvements, and what has been happening in Donbas does not correspond to agreements on settlement made in Minsk.