News and press releases

NEW YORK, 16 March 2018 – “Continuing the detention of Cumhuriyet CEO Akın Atalay, in a trial that has failed to produce proof of wrongdoing by the defendant, is unacceptable and deeply worrying,” OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir said today, hours after the seventh hearing concluded in the Cumhuriyet trial in Silivri, outside of Istanbul.

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it heard ceasefire violations assessed as inside the Petrivske disengagement area. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including near Izvaryne and Sievernyi (border crossing points in Luhansk region near the border with the Russian Federation) and in Verkhnoshyrokivske.* The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Hnutove and Bakhmut. The SMM continued to facilitate and monitor repairs to the Petrivske water pumping station in Artema and again facilitated access for workers to the Donetsk Filtration Station. In Kyiv, the SMM monitored a march related to court proceedings regarding events at Maidan in early 2014. In Kharkiv, the Mission monitored a gathering on the fourth anniversary of 2014 events...

COPENHAGEN, 15 March 2018 – In response to the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom on 4 March, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) today issued the following statement:...

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. It observed shelling impacts in rural residential areas near Novolaspa and eastern Horlivka. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske. Its access remained restricted in all three areas and elsewhere, including near Dovzhanske (a border crossing point in Luhansk region near the border with the Russian Federation) and Novolaspa.* The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Khlibodarivka. The SMM continued to facilitate and monitor repairs to the Petrivske water pumping station in Artema and a water pipeline near Horlivka; it also facilitated access for workers to the Donetsk Filtration Station. In Kyiv the Mission monitored a gathering of 100 National Guard personnel, in Kharkiv it followed up on media reports of the vandalism of a monument, and in Uzhhorod it followed up on an incident at a public event on 8 March. In Odessa the SMM monitored two gathering commemorating the Day of Ukrainian Volunteer Fighters and in Lviv it followed up on reports of an explosion at a cemetery.

NEW YORK, 15 March 2018 – Speaking at a panel on safety of female journalists at the United Nations Headquarters, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir underlined the link between safety of female journalists, plurality and democratic societies.

MINSK, 14 March 2018 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG and its Working Groups in Minsk on 14 March 2018:

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission followed up on reports that vehicles carrying Voda Donbassa employees had been damaged by gunfire near the Donetsk Filtration Station on 12 and 13 March. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske and spotted previously seen military hardware and mines inside the Petrivske disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three areas and elsewhere, including near Sosnivske, Kreminets and at a border crossing point near Izvaryne in Luhansk region, near the border with the Russian Federation.* The SMM continued to facilitate and monitor repairs to the Petrivske water pumping station in Artema and a water pipeline near Horlivka. It monitored a religious procession of 15,000 to 20,000 people in Lviv. At the administrative boundary line between Kherson region and Crimea, the SMM noted a calm situation.