Spot Report by OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM): SMM vehicle set on fire in Ivano-Frankivsk

This report is for media and the general public.

At 22:49 (EET) on 6 September the security guard of the SMM office located in central Ivano-Frankivsk noted on the CCTV camera that an SMM vehicle (Nissan Patrol) in the parking lot was on fire and called the fire brigade. At the same time, the security guard of the building where the SMM office is located had also noted the fire, after being notified by two employees of a restaurant located in the same building. Both guards immediately tried to put out the fire using fire extinguishers from the SMM office. After trying for three minutes, the guards realised that the fire was impossible to extinguish and moved two other SMM vehicles parked nearby to a safe location to prevent the fire from spreading.  

The fire brigade arrived at the scene after eight minutes and extinguished the fire at 23:02. The police also arrived promptly at the scene and started an investigation. The SMM and the police watched the CCTV camera installed outside the SMM office and saw that an unknown masked man had entered the SMM parking lot, put a large-size plastic package on the SMM vehicle and set it on fire.

Due to the damage from the fire the SMM vehicle is no longer operational. No SMM staff members were harmed. A police investigation is ongoing.