Press Statement by Special Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sajdik following shelling of the Donetsk Water Filtration Station

KYIV, 4 November 2017 - The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, issued today the following statement:

"Together with Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, Ambassador Toni Frisch and Per Fischer,  Co-ordinators of the TCG sub-groups on security, humanitarian and economic issues, I firmly reiterate our condemnation of all violations to the cessation of fire in Eastern Ukraine. Such violations, made in denial of the conflict sides' recent recommitment to ceasefire, pose permanent direct threat to the local population. Furthermore, the shelling of certain civilian infrastructure can also trigger major environmental damage with incalculable consequences, in a region already heavily impaired by more than three years of armed conflict. 

With this in mind, we strongly condemn the shelling of the Donetsk Water Filtration Station that took place during the night to 4 November. We stress that a direct or near hit of only one of the 900 kg bottles of highly toxic chlorine gas stored at the Filtration Station for water treatment could kill people within a 200 m radius, including the staff of the facility, and seriously disrupt the supply of water to almost 350,000 people on both the sides of the line of contact.

We call on the sides to the conflict to fully realise these risks and avoid civilian infrastructure. We urge them to give instructions to that effect to their combatants on the ground, to make these instructions public pending the creation of technical safety zones around civilian infrastructure, and to finalise without delay their ongoing TCG discussions on the creation of such safety zones."