News and press releases

COPENHAGEN, 18 October 2021 – The governments of Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland must work together to ensure that persons trapped in the border area between their countries have access to food, water, adequate health care and temporary shelter, the leadership of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee on Migration and the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions said today.

On 17 October, an SMM patrol consisting of three vehicles and nine people arrived at a checkpoint of the armed formations on road H-15 near the Kargil plant in Kreminets (non-government-controlled, 16km south-west of Donetsk) at 12:01, intending to travel to non-government-controlled areas. Another SMM patrol, consisting of two vehicles and six people, intending to cross to government-controlled areas, arrived at the same checkpoint ten minutes later. At the checkpoint, two members of the armed formations denied both patrols passage, referring to instructions of their superiors “not to let the SMM pass through the checkpoint in either direction”.

On 17 October, at 16:03, the SMM observed that the vehicle gates of its Forward Patrol Base (FPB) in Horlivka (non-government-controlled, 39km north-east of Donetsk) was being locked with a chain and a padlock, and that a vehicle with blue “DPR” plates was parked south of its gates, blocking the exit. It also saw two members of the armed formations standing next to the vehicle.

Summary In Donetsk region, the SMM recorded 236 ceasefire violations, including 72 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded 32 ceasefire violations in the region. In Luhansk region, the Mission recorded 273 ceasefire violations, including 214 explosions. In the previous reporting

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) is closely following the recent developments related to the incident in the disengagement area near Zolote on 13 October. On that day, the SMM patrols were present on both sides of the contact line near the disengagement area where they were monitoring adherence to a localized ceasefire to enable vegetation clearance along the road that traverses the area. All relevant observations concerning this activity were duly reflected in SMM Daily Report of 14 October 2021.

Summary In Donetsk region, the SMM recorded 32 ceasefire violations, including 20 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded 230 ceasefire violations in the region. In Luhansk region, the Mission recorded 207 ceasefire violations, including 157 explosions. In the previous reporting

As a concrete outcome of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro’s campaign on more women in policing, the first meeting of the Women Police Association from Montenegro and the Network of Women in Police from Serbia was organized in Podgorica on 14 October 2021, supported by the Mission and the Swedish Police Regional Project Office in Belgrade...