MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – Members of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) visited a shelled school and bus stop in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a statement released by the organization Thursday said.
"When at the scene, the SMM saw a large crater, one metre [or about 3 feet] in diameter, some 50 metres [or around 55 yards] from the school, which it assessed to have been the impact of a shell of an unspecified nature," the OSCE statement said.
According to the statement, OSCE monitors were guided inside the school building by representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) "who showed the SMM two bodies on the floor."
"There were no casualties among the school children, according to the "DPR" representatives," the statement said.
The SMM also examined the bus station not far from the school, where, according to the statement, "it saw a bus almost entirely burnt out, and could observe six bodies at the scene. Around fifty metres north of the bus, the SMM saw a metallic object stuck in the asphalt which appeared to be a large rocket canister. Given its angle, the SMM assessed that it could have been fired from the south."
The shelling in Donetsk, which took place on Wednesday, left 11 people dead and around 40 others injured. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the violence.
The stand-off between the Ukrainian government and pro-independence forces of southeastern Ukraine has killed over 3,200 since Kiev launched a military operation in April.
The two sides agreed on a ceasefire at a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine held in Minsk on September 5. Both the Kiev forces and independence fighters have subsequently accused each other of violating the ceasefire.
Another meeting of the Contact Group, held on September 19, resulted in a memorandum, which stipulated the creation of a 30-kilometer (18-mile) buffer zone, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from residential areas and the deployment of an OSCE monitoring mission in southeastern Ukraine.
