Securing continued presence in Ukraine

Since the war in Ukraine started, our main priority has been to make sure our colleagues are as safe as possible. Our second priority was to secure a continued OSCE presence in the country.

With the beginning of Russia’s military action in Ukraine, our most urgent priority was to get our staff to safety quickly. All international staff were temporarily evacuated from Ukraine and national colleagues, who had not already evacuated, were instructed not to go to the office. My team tracked locations and tried to facilitate relocation for national colleagues that wanted to move to a safer area of Ukraine. After spending a month in the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, we are now back in Ukraine, continuing to implement existing programs and projects in line with our mandate.

The Project Co-ordinator’s office (PCU) has worked in Ukraine for nearly 25 years has a broad mandate. It works with the Ukrainian Government to support OSCE commitments across all three dimensions – political-military, economic and environmental, and the human dimension. While we have had to adjust some of the work, PCU staff continue to deliver on most of the 40 approved projects.

The re-entry into Ukraine was agreed with the Secretary General and the Chairman-in-Office, and OSCE Security did a thorough security risk assessment before the move received the green light.

Moving back into Ukraine emphasizes that it is not only important, but imperative that OSCE field operations work out of the countries in which they are mandated, in order to preserve their credibility and that of the Organization.

Surreal situation

In addition to working on our re-entry, my focus since the start of Russia’s military action against Ukraine has been to follow up closely on national staff who are still in Ukraine.

So far everyone is accounted for, although I can’t say all of them are safe. 16 of our colleagues are still in Kyiv, 32 are refugees and around 50 are currently internally displaced.

Although there had been reports about a possible military escalation in the east, the fact that several locations all over the country were targeted on the first day came as a shock.

Several national staff had already evacuated at this time and the rest received instructions not to go to the office, but to stay in close contact with Mission management.

I admit it is challenging to manage the team during an armed conflict, but the dedication and bravery of our national colleagues has been fantastic. Like most people, we are fairly well trained in working from different locations, due to the pandemic. Even though these are extreme conditions, it was never a case of the work coming to a grinding halt.

So far, our work has focused on psychosocial rehabilitation, along with scaling up measures on anti-trafficking in human beings, and legal aid to internally displaced people and refugees.

There is now an enormous displacement of several million people. Many of them had to leave without their documents so providing simple legal aid and psychosocial support is very important.

Addressing humanitarian needs

The PCU is a flexible and adaptable office, which is an advantage in the current circumstances. We will put this flexibility to good use, by setting up a new project, providing humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian partners. We already gathered initial requests, and we are currently working to purchase and deliver to Ukraine a number of things they urgently need, notably first aid kits, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads.

The OSCE is not a humanitarian aid organization, but in order to act credibly in Ukraine at the moment, it is an aspect we cannot ignore. The needs are everywhere. We work with more than 20 ministries and government institutions and every single one voices the need for humanitarian aid. Several participating States have stepped up to fund the project, which is an important and complementary element to our work in these troubled times.

In addition, we plan to build on our previous experience and efforts that have become even more important in the last few weeks. This includes increasing Ukraine’s humanitarian mine action capacity by developing a mine action strategy, providing equipment, and educating people on the risk of explosive ordnance.

The PCU will also focus on combatting illicit trafficking of weapons, ammunition and explosives, trafficking in human beings, and raising awareness on cyber security for ministries and for the public.

Whatever the outcome of the ongoing conflict, there will be a need for a continued OSCE engagement in Ukraine and the PCU is well placed to support this goal.