OSCE reports surge in number of explosions in east Ukraine

Ukrainian service members ride at a infantry fighting vehicle on the front line near the village of Zaitseve in the Donetsk region, Ukraine February 19, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two regions in eastern Ukraine where government and separatist forces have been fighting since 2014 were hit by more than 1,400 explosions on Friday, monitors for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said, pointing to a surge in shelling.

The two Russian-backed, self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions are at the centre of a surge in tensions between Moscow and the West over a vast Russian military buildup near Ukraine.