Donetsk, Sep 17 - DAN. Servicemen of the Ukrainian army’s 79th Brigade blocked the operation of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission camera in the Novotroitskoye crossing point area, the Donetsk People’s Republic People’s Militia said citing intelligence reports.

Earlier, an OSCE report said that at 10:20 on September 15 during a scheduled maintenance, the SMM saw that the power cable located in the meter box that provided the camera with electricity was disconnected and that the system was operating on a backup power supply. The Mission reconnected the power supply and re-sealed the meter box.

“A group of three 79th Brigade gunmen sabotaged OSCE SMM property blocking the operation of the fixed camera in the Beryozovoye settlement (in the vicinity of the Novotroitskoye crossing point - eds Donetsk News Agency),” the DPR militia said.

According to the Mission, the camera system consists of both daylight and thermal cameras, covering the areas south-east and north-east from its location and can register ceasefire violations and other relevant observations on both sides of the contact line.*jk