Latest from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, based on information received as of 18:00hrs, 31 July 2014 (Kyiv time)

This update is provided for media and general public.

No changes at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17 near Hrabove were observed by the SMM. Shelling on the outskirts of Donetsk persisted. Entrepreneurs from Kharkiv reported to the SMM on the negative economic consequences of the conflict in Donbas on their business. Concerns about a partial mobilisation, being carried out in Ukraine, are being raised by interlocutors of the SMM.

The SMM spoke to 20 local businessmen, representing various economic sectors – all of them members of the European Business Association in Kharkiv. They indicated that partial mobilisation, though understandable in the present situation in Ukraine, might negatively affect their businesses, particularly if specialists working in their enterprises were mobilised. They also said that the current situation in the country exerted a serious impact on the economy: hotels, for example, were losing many clients, and EU businesses were cautious about business transactions while the present situation in Donbas persisted.

The SMM spoke to several local women from the village of Shulhynka (78 km north of Luhansk), following up on reports about local protests against mobilisation. All of those interviewed were concerned that their sons and husbands might be drafted. The deputy chief of the Regional Military Recruitment Office (Viyskovyi komisariat) in the Luhansk region confirmed to the SMM that anti-conscription demonstrations were going on in the region.

The overall security situation in Donetsk remained a cause for concern, though instances of shelling in the city’s outskirts appeared less intensive. The SMM visited several streets close to Donetsk airport, five kilometres north of the city centre, which had been hit by artillery on 29 July. The SMM saw damaged apartments with broken windows and walls, which had been demolished by unknown perpetrators. Houses in one of the visited areas had been without water and electricity since 28 July because of shelling, according to local residents.

The SMM, together with Dutch and Australian experts, successfully visited the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17 in Hrabove (79 km east of Donetsk), in accordance with a route and plan agreed in both Kyiv with the Ukrainian Government, and in Donetsk with the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (DPR). This was a reconnaissance rather than a full investigative group. The SMM observed no changes to the main site when compared to previous visits, reflected in the respective reports: for example, many personal belongings remained where SMM had last seen them. No security perimeter was in place at the scene. The SMM saw artillery and rocket impacts 8-10 km westwards of the crash site. On the way between Donetsk and Hrabove the SMM had twice to cross territories controlled by Ukrainian Government and DPR or the so-called ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’ (LPR): on the outskirts of Donetsk, near Yasynuvata, between the territory controlled by the DPR and the Ukrainian army; and again in Debaltseve, between the Ukrainian army and LPR – in both cases after local cease-fires between the Ukrainian army and armed separatists had been successfully negotiated.

The SMM in Dnepropetrovsk met the acting head of a local court, and another judge from the same court. Both claimed that mobilisation would affect their work in a negative way, if it encompassed the staff of the judiciary. They were concerned that they themselves might be conscripted. Further, they informed that many people were losing their posts in large companies owing to the deteriorating economic situation, and banks are lodging cases to protect or retain their investments.

The situation in Kherson was calm.

The SMM met with the Head of Police and the Head of the district administration in Bolhrad (243 km south-west of Odessa), and a local journalist. According to them, Ukrainian soldiers who performed military exercises in the area last week created anxiety among the local population, which had not been properly informed about the exercises.

The SMM met with the head of the district council in Hlyboka (30 km south of Chernivtsi), who said that there were now no roadblocks in the district, unlike a week ago. He said that the protests were a result of a misunderstanding about the meaning of ‘partial mobilisation’. Local authorities planned to improve communication with local people and issue folders, in both Ukrainian and Romanian languages, with all necessary information related to mobilisation, among other things, emphasising the clear distinction between mobilisation and an individual conscription order.

The situation in Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Kyiv was calm.