Spot Report by OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): SMM held at gunpoint at checkpoint in Lukove

This report is for media and the general public.

At 14:28 on 22 August, an SMM patrol comprising four SMM staff members and a paramedic in two vehicles was stopped by three armed men at a checkpoint in “DPR”-controlled Lukove (72km south of Donetsk). One of them demanded in a hostile manner to search the SMM vehicles. The patrol leader explained that searching SMM vehicles was not allowed, but the armed man insisted and went ahead to perform the search. While he was doing that, another armed man inside a bunker in front of the first SMM vehicle pointed – from a distance of seven-eight metres and during most of the time – a light machine-gun (RPK) at four members of the patrol who were out of the vehicles.

The man doing the search asked the SMM about “equipment used for spying” and for “video footage” in an accusatory manner. He performed a thorough search of the trunks of both SMM vehicles, including the medical kits. He also inquired about the whereabouts of “the sixth” patrol member, who he claimed had been present when the patrol had passed the checkpoint in the morning (there was no sixth patrol member). Two SMM members detected a strong smell of alcohol on the breath of the man performing the search.

The search lasted eight minutes. The SMM patrol was then able to pass through the checkpoint and eventually return safely to its base in Mariupol (102km south of Donetsk). The SMM informed the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination about the incident.

On 29 July at the same checkpoint, armed men threatened the SMM at gunpoint. (See Spot report 29 July 2016.)