Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 17 October 2014

This report is for media and the general public.

In addition to its regular monitoring, the SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum. The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions remained volatile, whereas other parts of the country remained calm.

A police point-of-contact told the SMM that a cargo train had sustained slight damage when an explosive device of an unspecified nature exploded on the rail tracks between Kolomak (85km west of Kharkiv) and Vodyane (95km west of Kharkiv) on 16 October. No injuries were reported. A representative of the railway company corroborated the information from the police, adding that an investigation was being carried out by the State Security Service (SBU).

The commander at a checkpoint (CP) controlled by the “Lugansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”) in the village of Fashchivka (84km south-west of Luhansk) told the SMM on 16 October that the village had been subjected to shelling on three occasions on the previous day. He said the shelling had emanated from Chornukhyne, a village 20km northwest, located close to government-controlled Debaltseve (75km northeast of Donetsk). A local woman corroborated the information. The “LPR” commander said one civilian was seriously injured. The SMM noted what appeared to be 17 mortar impacts and the remains of two houses, almost completely destroyed.

A Ukrainian soldier at a CP outside Novoaidar (56km north of Luhansk) told the SMM that many people, especially young and educated, were leaving Luhansk city, travelling by bus through the CP every day in unspecified numbers. He said they were leaving because there were few job opportunities in the “LPR”-controlled city.

The SMM at the same CP heard out-going machinegun and anti-aircraft fire emanating from a location approximately 10km to the south.

A police station commander in Rubizhne (105km north-west of Luhansk) told the SMM that the crime rate in the town had decreased since it was re-taken by government forces in July. He said there had been 85 “separatist”-related cases of torture, kidnapping, murder, abduction, and car-jacking during the period when the town was under “LPR” control.

The SMM observed no restrictions on the movement of traffic through CPs around Mariupol (113km south of Donetsk). There was in fact for the second consecutive day heavy traffic coming from Donetsk, which one CP commander said was because people were travelling from Donetsk to Mariupol in order to collect their pensions and buy food. According to another CP commander, however, there had been an estimated 30-40% decrease in the number of people travelling through the CP following a fatal shelling incident in Sartana (19km north-east of Mariupol) on 14 October. He explained that people were only making strictly necessary trips in that area to the north-east of Mariupol.

The head of the City Department of Social Services in Artemivsk (80km north of Donetsk) told the SMM that there were 12,776 registered IDPs in the town and surrounding areas, most of whom were from Debaltseve, Donetsk, Horlivka (44km north-east of Donetsk) and other areas currently the focus of fighting. Initially, she said, most had come from Sloviansk (111km north of Donetsk), but had returned home since the town was re-taken by government troops in July.

Whilst in Debaltseve, the SMM heard incoming and out-going artillery fire.

The “mayor” of Donetsk – appointed by the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) – told the SMM that property owned by people who had left the region, and who had not returned by 20 October, would not be confiscated by the “DPR”. He said that rumours suggesting this would happen had been spread by “provocateurs” hoping to exacerbate the crisis. He added any seizure of property would be done in accordance with the law.

In the northern suburbs of the city, the SMM heard incoming artillery rounds on three separate occasions.

In “DPR”-controlled Telmanovo (83km south-east of Donetsk), a local “DPR” commander and the deputy head of the District Council told the SMM that public transport, emergency services (ambulance and fire-brigade) and the police were operating normally. They said, however, that pensions and municipal salaries had not been paid since September.

The situation remained calm in Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson.

The bishop of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine – which has 51 congregations throughout the country – told the SMM in Odessa that one of his priests, a German citizen, had been obliged to leave Crimea because Germany had not recognised the annexation of the peninsula by the Russian Federation. He also said the church’s property in Crimea would have to be re-registered, in accordance with Russian legislation with, he said, unclear implications for the church’s ability to retain ownership.

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