News and press releases

ISTANBUL, 14 June 2019- Concluding his four-day official visit to Turkey, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today called on the Turkish authorities to urgently address and reverse current media freedom violations and pressure that journalists face.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. The SMM saw damage from shelling to two residential properties and fresh craters in Nova Marivka, as well as damage to a house in Travneve and craters near a gas pipeline near Novoluhanske. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations and observed an extended trench inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM saw a surface-to-air missile system in violation of withdrawal lines in Khreshchatytske. It saw pieces of unexploded ordnance for the first time in Popasna and Hruzko-Lomivka. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere.

Bratislava, 14 June 2019- Following a meeting with President Zelensky on 13 June, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Slovakia’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajčák calls on the international community to support the Ukrainian President's constructive steps towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis in and around Ukraine. He also offers the full support of the Slovak Chairmanship in this endeavour.

KYIV, 13 June 2019 – Visiting Ukraine for the second time since taking over the OSCE Chairmanship, Slovakia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other members of the Ukrainian leadership to explore steps towards a peaceful political solution to the crisis in and around Ukraine as well as to discuss ways to ease human suffering on the ground...

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded a similar number of ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. • Two men were injured and a tractor destroyed by a mine explosion in a field south of Popasna. • The Mission recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area. • The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. • The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line. • It saw two international organization convoys transporting humanitarian aid in Pikuzy and Sakhanka and near Olenivka. • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including at checkpoints near non-government-controlled Ternove and Novoazovsk...

COPENHAGEN, 13 June 2019 – Following mass arrests of peaceful demonstrators in recent days in Moscow, Russia, and several cities in Kazakhstan, the leaders of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee call for full respect of fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression...

VIENNA, 12 June 2019- The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, called on the Russian authorities to respect the rights of journalists to cover public events and release all detained media workers, following the peaceful demonstration in Moscow today.