OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Daily Report 69/2020 issued on 23 March 2020

Summary

• Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 20 and 21 March, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. Between the evenings of 21 and 22 March, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions, compared with the previous 24 hours.
• At a schoolyard in Oleksandrivka, Donetsk region, a girl sustained shrapnel injuries.
• The SMM saw damage from shelling to a residential building in Donetsk city.
• The Mission was unable to retrieve a mid-range UAV that was flying over areas inside and near the disengagement area near Petrivske.
• The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske. It recorded ceasefire violations inside the disengagement area near Petrivske.
• It saw 14 weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
• The SMM saw anti-tank mines in government- and non-government-controlled areas, including some for the first time, as well as unexploded ordnance on a road near Verkhnoshyrokivske.
• The Mission continued to observe measures related to the COVID-19 outbreak at checkpoints in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions and noted that, on 22 March, all EECPs had closed to civilian traffic.
• The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to localized ceasefires to enable demining activities near Krasnyi Yar, as well as repairs to critical civilian infrastructure between Holubivske and Berezivske and near Shumy.
• Restrictions of the SMM’s freedom of movement continued, at checkpoints of the armed formations near Olenivka and Verkhnoshyrokivske, where members of the armed formations denied all SMM patrols passage into non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region.*