Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine based on information received until 30 June 2014, 18:00 (Kyiv time)

Tensions remained in parts of Donbas. The situation was calm elsewhere across the country.

This update is provided for the media and the public.

In Kharkiv the situation remained calm. The SMM was informed about a donation from supporters of Ukraine’s unity to Ukrainian forces. Namely, supporters of Ukraine’s unity from Lviv went to Chuhuiev to supply Ukrainian armed forces serving in the Kharkiv Region with 150 flak jackets and 200 helmets. At the same time, wounded soldiers in Kharkiv’s hospitals were visited by Catholic priests, also from Lviv.

The situation in parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions was tense and unchanged compared to the previous reporting period.

In Luhansk in the night from 29 to 30 June, the SMM heard, from an unidentified direction, five explosions.

On June 30 at around 13.00, 15.20 and 18.30, artillery and mortar fire was heard by the SMM, all coming from the northern part of Luhansk city.

There were no incidents in the past 24 hours at two checkpoints the SMM visited. Traffic was allowed through at both checkpoints and Ukrainian soldiers manning the checkpoints were thorough when searching cars.

The SMM met with Valery Bolotov, “president” of the so-called ’Luhansk People’s Republic’ (LPR), who claimed that the ceasefire was never respected by the Ukrainian forces.

The situation in Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Odessa, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv was calm.

In Odessa the SMM visited the military department of Odessa, in order to receive more information about a reported arson attack on 30 June on the building. The SMM spoke to the guard in front of the building, who said that a Molotov cocktail had been thrown at the entrance of the building. The SMM was not able to assess possible damage from outside the building.

In Kherson the SMM met with the head of a medium-sized farm, close to Mykolaiv. The interlocutor explained that ten per cent of the farm’s produce had been exported to Russia before the start of the conflict, 20 % to European countries and 20 % went to Crimea. The rest was sold locally. Exports to Russia have ceased, but the trade with Crimea continues, the interlocutor said. He said he believed that trade with the Crimean peninsula would continue as importing goods from Russia was logistically more difficult.

The situation in Kyiv was calm.