Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine - based on information received up until 5 May 2014, 19:00

Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine - based on information received up until 5 May 2014, 19:00.

This update is provided for the media and the public.

Tensions continue in Donbas. Other parts of the country remained calm. No serious security incidents were observed in Odessa, but the overall atmosphere in the city was quite tense.

The situation in Donetsk remained tense. The City Administration building in Mariupol (113 km south of Donetsk) was found to be surrounded by tire blockades and around 50 people in front of the building. There were also posters with “OSCE get out” or “OSCE you cheat” written on them. The situation in the city Krasnoarmiysk (around 74 km north-east of Donetsk), visited by the SMM, seemed to be calm and quiet. On the office of local police flags both of Ukraine and self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” were hoisted.

The situation in Dnepropetrovsk as well as in Kherson, Mykolaiv and the surrounding areas remained calm, with no security-related incident reported on 5 May.

There were no serious security incidents observed in Odessa, but the overall atmosphere was judged tense. The SMM visited the building of Trade Unions, which had been made accessible to the public and the media after fire from 2 May. It appeared that the fire damage had spread down the corridors on the first and second floors. The Head of the Regional Bureau of Forensics informed the SMM that a total of 46 bodies had been transferred to the its morgue, among whom were five people shot dead in the clashes at Soborna street, and 41 other fatalities in Kulikove Pole. According to the interlocutor, the majority of the deceased have already been identified as mostly from Odessa and the neighbouring regions. The final report of the forensic investigation is expected to be finalised in about one month’s time.

The situation in Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv remained calm. SMM spoke to the representative of Polish-speaking media in Lviv, who expressed the opinion that the situation of the Polish minority did not raise any particular concerns.

The situation in Kyiv was calm.

The situation in Kharkiv remained calm with no rallies observed in the city.

The situation in Luhansk was tense and unchanged compared to previous days.