LUGANSK, June 16. /TASS/: A Ukrainian drone that was on a reconnaissance mission near the settlement of Golubovsky in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) was downed by LPR militias, Ivan Filiponenko, a spokesman for the LPR defense ministry, said on Sunday.
"Today, our servicemen prevented the Ukrainian side’s attempt to use an unmanned aerial vehicle," LuganskInformCenter quoted him as saying. "A Phantom-type drone was downed by servicemen of the air observation post near Golubovsky."
Spokesman for the LPR’s defense ministry Yakov Osadchiy said earlier that five Ukrainian drones had been downed in April and May.
Under the agreements reached at the Minsk talks of the Contact Group, only monitors of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission are allowed to use unmanned aerial vehicles in the areas adjacent to the contact line in Donbass. However, according to the Lugansk and Donetsk republics, Ukrainian troops regularly use drones for reconnaissance and fire adjustment purposes in violation of the agreements.
