(VOVworld) - The Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday that it has recorded the presence of heavy weapons, which is banned under a current ceasefire deal, near the frontline in the eastern regions.

The SMM observed numerous weapons missing from storage sites and the presence of weapons in violation of withdrawal lines, quite often in or near residential areas. The report came amid an escalation of hostilities between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents in the restive area as the sides failed to find common ground on local elections in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine.