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 demining activities inside the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area and further withdrawal of forces and hardware. • The SMM saw fresh craters and damage to houses due to shelling in Pikuzy. • Small-arms fire was assessed as aimed at SMM unmanned aerial vehicles near Sakhanka and Staromykhailivka. • The SMM saw anti-tank mines near Talakivka and Pikuzy, including some for the first time. • The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to critical civilian infrastructure. • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including near non-government-controlled Starolaspa, Shevchenko and Verkhnoshyrokivske.*

On 27 June, the SMM was flying a long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over government- and non-government-controlled areas of southern Donetsk region. At 23:18, while the UAV was flying near Zaichenko (non-government-controlled, 93km south of Donetsk), on-board systems indicated that the temperature of the UAV engine had reached critically high levels and it began to rapidly lose power and altitude. While attempting a controlled descent in an unpopulated area, at 23:22, the SMM lost contact with the UAV...

Twenty-four female leaders from the border security and management sector graduated from a staff course at the OSCE Border Management Staff College (BMSC) on 27 June 2019 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. It was the sixth course designed and delivered specifically for female leaders by the College since its inception a decade ago.

• The Mission observed the beginning of the disengagement process at the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. • Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. • The SMM saw fresh damage from gunfire to a civilian house in Dokuchaievsk and to a pig farm near Novoluhanske. • It saw anti-tank mines near Petrivske, some for the first time. • The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to critical civilian infrastructure, including to water pipelines and powerlines. It continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station. • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere.

At 12:00 on 26 June, the SMM observed the beginning of the disengagement process at the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area.

KYIV, 26 June 2019 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press:

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer Luhansk region. • Small arms were fired in the vicinity of the SMM, and other civilians, in Donetsk city and of an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle near Zolote. • The SMM followed up on a boy injured from the detonation of unexploded ordnance in Holmivskyi. • The Mission saw fresh craters near Vodiane and Molodizhne, and again saw the presence of mines near Vodiane, Travneve, Holmivskyi and Nyzhnie Lozove. • The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to water pipelines in Luhansk region and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure in Donetsk region. • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewere.*