Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 18 December 2014

This report is for media and the general public.

The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum and the work of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC). The SMM observed no shelling or use of fire-arms, although the JCCC did report on a number of cases. Furthermore the SMM noted no movement of weaponry towards the contact line, noting on the contrary movement away from it.   

Near government-controlled Lidine (65km south-west of Donetsk), the SMM observed two trucks – each towing D-30 howitzers (artillery piece) – moving west, away from the contact line.

At the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) HQ in government-controlled Debaltseve (55km north-east of Donetsk), the SMM met members of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) and the “Lugansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”), and Ukrainian and Russian Federation military officers, respectively led by Maj-Gen Razmaznin and Maj-Gen Vyaznikov. The latter said that all eight JCCC sub offices in “DPR”- and “LPR”-controlled areas would be provided with vehicles and necessary equipment by the end of next week. Joint patrolling, he said, could only commence if the exact run of the line of contact had been agreed. He did not, however, indicate when such patrolling would begin, or whether it would begin if agreement on the line of contact were agreed. Maj-Gen. Razmaznin agreed. The SMM was shown an incident log, agreed by all parties to the JCCC, which recorded 28 incidents in the 24 hours preceding 10:00hrs, 17 December. Five of them involved heavy weaponry and the remainder small arms and light weaponry.

At the JCCC office in “DPR”-controlled Donetsk, the SMM examined log books, which recorded 12 incidents in the city between 10:30hrs and 23:45hrs on 16 December.

The SMM observed 100-150 people queuing outside a government controlled bank in Dzerzhynsk (42km north of Donetsk). Many of them told the SMM that they were from “DPR”-controlled territory, where banks no longer operate.

In government-controlled Sloviansk (95km north of Donetsk), the co-ordination officer of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit within the Ministry of Emergency Services told the SMM that 20,683 UXOs had been recorded in the Donetsk region and 10,424 in the Luhansk region since June. He added that one staff member had been injured while on duty.

The SMM observed a 152mm self-propelled howitzer on a trailer in government-controlled Novoaidar (58km north of Luhansk), coming from government-controlled Shchastya (16km north of Luhansk), moving away from the line of contact.

Approximately 50 people – mostly young men; some wearing camouflage clothing and some masks – demonstrated outside the City Council’s Housing Department in Kharkiv. They called for the resignation of the department’s director, whom they accused of corruption. Approximately 30 policemen were present. The crowd dispersed peacefully after half an hour.

On 15 December, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Health Department told the SMM that hospitals in the city have since the onset of the conflict in the east admitted and treated around 3,500 individuals injured in the fighting. Currently, he said, 400 such cases were being treated.

A representative of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation informed the SMM by phone that a convoy of humanitarian assistance – bound for the Donetsk region – had been stopped and turned back by members of the Dnipro-1 volunteer regiment at a Ukrainian military unit checkpoint in Pokrovske (103km south-east of Dnipropetrovsk ) on 16 December. The representative said the reason given by the soldiers was the lack of documentation. Later, the SMM contacted the commander of the Kryvbas Battalion – another volunteer Ukrainian military unit – who said his unit had stopped what he described as the “probing part” of a convoy – consisting of a jeep and two trucks – in Pokrovske on 16 December. He said the main part of the convoy – consisting of 30 vehicles – had been stopped and turned back at Synelnykove (38km south-east of Dnipropetrovsk).

The situation remained calm in Kherson, Odesa, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Kyiv.