Latest from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, based on information received by 18:00hrs, 28 July (Kyiv time)

This report is provided for media and general public.

The SMM visited Rubizhne and Shchastia – towns in the Luhansk region, which had been retaken in recent weeks by the Ukrainian army. The situation in both locations has been slowly normalising.

The SMM in Kharkiv noted that the situation was calm.

The SMM visited the town of Rubizhne (106 km northwest of Luhansk city), which was retaken by Government armed forces previously. There was electricity and water in the town, although provided with interruptions. Shops were stocked with food, and restaurants were open. Petrol was also available and the fire brigade was partially operational. The SMM saw long queues in front of banks. The acting mayor told the SMM that the situation in the town had stabilised.

The SMM visited Shchastia (23 km north of Luhansk city), a town retaken by Ukrainian forces in the first half of June. The sound of heavy artillery and GRAD systems could be heard in the distance, from the direction of Luhansk city to the south. The town’s infrastructure seemed untouched by recent fighting, and water and electricity were supplied.

Cash machines were not working, but people could withdraw money from the bank. Local people said that shops were selling food and other essentials but choice was limited. Social welfare and pensions were not being paid, according to interlocutors, since 4 July due to technical problems – respective databases remained in the combat zone.

The fighting around Donetsk city continued. Shelling in the outskirts of the city could be heard by the SMM throughout the reporting period. The SMM continued to support the international experts investigating the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, however due to ongoing fighting it was not able to visit the crash site.

The situation in Dnepropetrovsk and Kherson was calm.

The SMM observed a small protest in Odessa against an upcoming event involving singers perceived by the protesters as pro-Russian. An activist made a speech (in Ukrainian) calling for a boycott of Russian products, and saying clubs in Odessa should not allow ‘pro-Russian’ singers to perform. After the speech, around 20 people, including at least one with a Right Sector emblem, threw tomatoes at a placard which had photos of the singers. Leaflets exhorting people ‘not to feed the Russian occupation’ were distributed.

The SMM continued to observe road protests in the southeast of the Chernivtsi region against partial military mobilization. A high-ranking military official in Chernivtsi, speaking to the SMM, rejected allegations made by many demonstrators that men of Romanian origin were more likely to be drafted than ethnic Ukrainians. He also stated that currently there was no legal basis enabling the recruitment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Donbas before all others, which had been the claim of the demonstrators.

The SMM met with a high-ranking regional representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs in Ivano-Frankivsk. According to her, currently 949 displaced persons are hosted in the city, 280 of them from Crimea. On a daily basis, 10 to 15 IDPs from the east were arriving in Ivano-Frankivsk, she added.

The SMM met with the Head of the Regional Migration Service office in Lviv. According to the interlocutor, regional authorities estimate that the total number of IDPs present in the Lviv region amounts to approximately 12,000, but only one third of them had registered so far.

In Kyiv the SMM observed a religious event organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate to celebrate the 1026th anniversary of ‘Ruthenia’s baptism’ (conversion to Christianity). Around 700 people, including priests from Zhytomyr, Cherkassy, Nizhyn, Rivne, Dnepropetrovsk, representatives of the Ukrainian Cossacks, and soldiers of the battalion “Kyiv-1” took part in the religious procession across the city, which was held in a calm and festive atmosphere. The celebration was preceded by a peaceful demonstration in support of Ukraine’s unity. The SMM saw slogans against Patriarch Cyril of Moscow and all Russia.