Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine based on information received until 18:00 hrs, 17 July

This update is provided for media and general public.

The SMM is currently making its way to the crash site in the Donetsk region, where a civilian aircraft came down, leading to the deaths of 298 people on 17 July. The SMM intends to monitor the situation at the scene and report accordingly.

The deputy chief of police in Izuym (123 km southeast of Kharkiv) told the SMM during its visit to the city, that no demonstrations or acts of vandalism have recently occurred in the area. According to Izyum’s deputy mayor, there are approximately 1,200 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the city. The number of IDPs from Luhansk and Donetsk cities, he said, is growing.

The situation in Luhansk city and in parts of the Luhansk region remained tense.

Tension in Donetsk city and parts of the Donetsk region remained. The SMM observed few people or cars in the city centre of Donetsk. Most shops were closed. The SMM saw about 10 armed individuals representing the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ patrolling in front of the railway station and six others inside the building. The market around the railway station was open and many civilians were present.

The SMM visited the town of Kramatorsk (98 km north of Donetsk), where it observed that the mains water system was still unrepaired, with many people queuing at several points for free bottled water. On the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk road, the SMM went through four checkpoints manned by dozens of heavily-armed Ukrainian soldiers.

The situation in Dnepropetrovsk was calm.

The SMM met with the editor of the local newspaper in Mykolayiv (68 km northwest of Kherson), who said that the conflict in the east of Ukraine is creating discord in families living in Mykolaiv. Many of them have relatives and friends in the Russian Federation, who are influenced by the narrative of the Russian media, resulting in different perceptions of the sources of the conflicts and its genuine actors, which often creates discord within the families.

IDPs from Donbas, currently in Savran (220 km north of Odessa), also informed the SMM that divergent views on the war in Donbas have caused deep divisions within many mixed Ukrainian-Russian families.

The situation in Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk was calm.

The SMM met with the mayor, deputy chief of police and the leadership of a local ‘self-defence’ group in Zhydachiv, a town of around 11,000 inhabitants located 60 km south of Lviv. The mayor stressed that he was able to complete all projects on time despite delays in receiving funds from the state budget. Both the mayor and representatives of the ‘self-defence’ group expressed their full support for decentralization, perceived by them as the best way of solving problems in local communities. All interlocutors assessed the security situation as satisfactory.

The SMM in Kyiv observed volunteers in the city centre collecting money for the military campaign in the east. Leaflets distributed by the volunteers stated that donations would be used to purchase flak jackets, helmets, boots, sleeping bags and tents for soldiers.

The SMM in Kyiv saw flowers outside the embassy of the Russian Federation, with messages of condolences for the victims of the accident on the Moscow Metro, which occurred on 15 July.

Also in Kyiv, a representative of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff stated during a briefing attended by the SMM, that there are currently 45-50,000 IDPs in the country. He also said that approximately 800 individuals had returned to Sloviansk since the city had been retaken by Ukrainian forces.