NO RUSSIAN weapons or troops have crossed into Ukraine in the past 11 months, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has reported.

Speaking at a press conference in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Thursday evening, OSCE chief observer Paul Picard said: “We have not seen any military equipment crossing the Donetsk or Gukovo checkpoints,” the two Russian border towns monitored by his team.

The Russian Donetsk shares the name of the Ukrainian region and its capital where, as in Lugansk to the north-east, anti-fascist forces are fighting troops and neonazi militias of the Kiev coup regime.