Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 25 September 2014

This report is for media and the general public.

The SMM continued to monitor the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions focusing on the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol/Memorandum, noting, in particular, intense shelling around the airport in Donetsk city.

At a bridge near Chuguyev (40km south of Kharkiv city), the SMM noted that the Ukrainian military presence had been enhanced. Previously only two or three soldiers had been present, whereas on this occasion, 15 were on duty at the bridge. In addition, there were sandbags and an armoured personnel carrier. There is a military airport in the vicinity.

On 24 September the newly-appointed governor of the Luhansk region told the SMM in Severodonetsk (98km northwest of Luhansk city) that his main task was to facilitate the economic recovery of government-controlled parts of the region. He said currently government forces controlled territory in which just over a quarter of the region’s population lived. The “Lugansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”), he said, controlled territory inhabited by 64.4% of the population, while the remainder was living in disputed areas. He said establishing a functional administration in Severodonetsk was next to impossible without public records – including information on births, deaths, marriages and taxes – which are in Luhansk city. He asked the SMM to help arrange a meeting between his office and the “LPR” to discuss a possible transfer of such documentation. He added that his administration had assessed that damage compensation and repair costs for both private and public property in government-controlled parts of the region amounted to approximately UAH 3.15 billion (EUR 180 million). He worried that his administration’s inability to pay out such money would alienate people.

Close to a Ukrainian military checkpoint just south of Shchastya (24km north of Luhansk city), the SMM heard small arms fire emanating from the west. 

At around 18:55hrs on 24 September, the SMM heard what appeared to be approximately 20 outgoing mortar rounds emanating from the north-western suburbs of Donetsk city. The following morning at 8:50hrs, the SMM heard more explosions, again in the northwest of the city. Later that day, from 18:00 to 18:35hrs, the SMM heard approximately 30 explosions in the northern outskirts of the city, assessed to have been mortars and GRAD rockets. Donetsk airport lies on the north-western outskirts of the city.

A liaison officer at the headquarters of Ukraine’s “Anti-Terrorist Operation” (“ATO”) in Mariupol (113km south of Donetsk city) told the SMM that there had been shelling in an area 10 kilometres east of Mariupol.  Later, the commander of a Ukrainian military checkpoint eight kilometres east of the city told the SMM that there had been shelling at another Ukrainian checkpoint two kilometres further east, as indicated by the liaison officer. When later at that checkpoint, the SMM heard five incoming artillery rounds landing approximately 200 metres away. The SMM noted two outgoing rounds almost immediately from the checkpoint.

The deputy chief of Donetsk regional police told the SMM in Kramatorsk (97km north of Donetsk city) that although the security situation in the town had largely stabilised since the town was re-taken by Ukrainian forces in July, there were small arms and light weapons in circulation, resulting in an increase in gun-related crime. He added that the police in the area had the power to detain suspects for up to one month without charge, as opposed to 24 hours in areas outside the “ATO” zone.

A lawyer in Dnipropetrovsk representing one of two Communist Party members arrested on 1 September (see Daily Report 130/2014, 3 September) told the SMM on 24 September that his client could not be forensically linked to grenades found by the police in his home. He alleged the arrest was orchestrated in order to prevent the man from campaigning in the upcoming parliamentary election. Police also discovered separatist newspapers during the search of his house in Dniprodzerzhynsk (33km west of Dnipropetrovsk city). Police representatives in Dnipropetrovsk told the SMM on 25 September that preventing the dissemination of separatist ideals on social and mass media platforms was a priority.

Speaking at Stavky (110km southeast of Kherson city) on the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL), a Ukrainian border guard told the SMM on 23 September that holders of Russian passports issued in Crimea were not permitted to enter mainland Ukraine. In addition, he said, cars with Crimea-issued Russian license plates were also not allowed to cross the ABL.

The situation remained calm in Odessa, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv.

At a roundtable in Kyiv addressing the human rights of IDPs from Donbas, participants highlighted that the plight of IDPs was often ignored by the media, and when discussed, was often done so in a manner that negatively portrayed IDPs. The observation was made on the basis of analysis of 6,000 news items dealing with the human rights of IDPs.

On 22 September two lawyers providing free legal advice to Ukrainian military personnel on duty in the east told the SMM there was widespread dissatisfaction amongst soldiers with the Ukrainian Military High Command and political elites in Kyiv. They claimed such dissatisfaction could lead to a “third Maidan”, and in order to forestall this, political parties were recruiting commanders of volunteer military battalions to stand in the parliamentary elections.