Forward Patrol Bases enhance monitoring along the Contact Line, says OSCE Chief Monitor in Ukraine Apakan

During a visit to the Luhansk region on 29 November 2015, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Ertugrul Apakan, said Forward Patrol Bases established by the Mission greatly enhance monitoring along the Contact Line in eastern Ukraine.

He visited the SMM’s Forward Patrol Base in Novoaidar and met monitors working in Sievierodonetsk while assessing the general security situation in Luhansk region. He also visited a Permanent Weapons Storage Site in the region.

“Recently, the SMM established three Forward Patrol Bases in eastern Ukraine - two in government-controlled Novoaidar and Volnovakha, and one outside a government-controlled area of Luhansk region, in Stakhanov,” said Apakan. “These Bases will enhance the Mission’s monitoring by having monitors permanently present closer to the contact line.”

He said that the SMM is ready and willing to open more Forward Patrol Bases in eastern Ukraine as soon as it receives security guaranties from those in effective control of the concerned areas.

“The priority for the Mission is to open a new Forward Patrol Base in an area that is not under government control in Donetsk region as soon as possible,” Apakan added.

He noted that approximately 50 SMM patrols work along the Contact Line every day.