Donetsk, May 17 – DAN. An OSCE SMM unmanned aerial vehicle collapsed outside Konstantinovka jammed by Ukrainian electronic warfare units, the DPR People's Militia said citing intelligence sources.
"To conceal the deployment of equipment banned under the Minsk Agreements outside Konstantinovka, personnel of the 20th separate electronic warfare battalion engaged the SMM's Camcopter S-100 UAV to jam its control signals. As a result of these criminal actions the UAV crashed," the report reads.
The Additional Measures to Strengthen the Ceasefire were signed at the Contact Group meeting on July 22 to reinforce and control the indefinite ceasefire in effect since July 21, 2019, the latest in the series of more than 20 reconfirmation and announcements of the “silence regime”. The package came into effect on July 27.
The Schiebel Camcopter S-100 is an Austrian long-range unmanned aerial vehicle using a rotorcraft design. Its service ceiling is 5,500 m, maximum speed 220 km/h. The OSCE SMM uses this type of UAV to monitor situation in conflict zones.
Employing combat aviation and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in a 30 km wide zone along the line of contact is banned under Article 7 of Minsk Memorandum, with the sole exception of OSCE SMM UAVs.
With a range of over 160 km, the SMM’s long-range UAVs operate over Donbass equally on both sides of the contact line, including at night when mobile ground patrolling is restricted. *ot