News and press releases

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region. The Mission saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines at a railway station in government-controlled Kostiantynivka. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations near the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. It was also restricted while driving on a road north of Dokuchaievsk, at a heavy weapons holding area and at a checkpoint near Zaichenko, all in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region...

VIENNA, 4 April 2019 – Despite the latest recommitment to cease fire, beginning on 8 March, the security situation in eastern Ukraine remains volatile, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, said in his address to the OSCE Permanent Council today in Vienna...

A five-day OSCE regional course, Introduction to Humanitarian Mine Action Systems, started on 1 April 2019 in Almaty, Kazakhstan...

An OSCE-supported roundtable discussion on environmental problems in the Atyrau Region including the recent death of numerous tonnes of fish in the Ural River concluded on 3 April 2019 in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.

KYIV, 4 April 2019 – On the occasion of International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, observed to raise awareness about mines and progress towards their eradication, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Ertugrul Apakan, and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Henrik Villadsen, highlighted the importance of mine action in the conflict-affected areas of eastern Ukraine...

The OSCE Mobile Training Team delivered an interactive training course on the identification of foreign terrorist fighters at the borders for 27 first- and second-line border officers and instructors of Kyrgyzstan’s border institutions from 2 to 4 April 2019 in Bishkek...

Strengthening sustainable development in the Dniester basin was the focus of the OSCE-supported second meeting of the Transboundary Dniester Commission held on 4 April 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine...