News and press releases

Some 20 representatives from the Financial Monitoring Committee and Academy of Law Enforcement Agencies under the Office of the Prosecutor General completed a five-day course on strategic analysis on 23 November in Astana. The event was jointly organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, Kazakhstan’s Financial Monitoring Committee and the United States Embassy in Astana.

MINSK, 22 November 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 22 November 2018:

On 22 November at 06:44 (Moscow time), the eighty-first Russian convoy arrived at the Donetsk Border Crossing Point (BCP). A total of 19 vehicles were checked by Russian Federation border guards and customs officers prior to their crossing into Ukraine. All 19 vehicles had crossed back into the Russian Federation by 15:07 on 22 November...

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations near the Zolote disengagement area. It observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines, mostly in non-government-controlled areas. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to the Petrivske water pumping station near Artema and to the Donetsk Filtration Station as well as assessments of a water pipeline near Pervomaisk. The Mission visited three border areas not under government control. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas; it was also restricted at compounds in Novoselivka and near Siedove, an area close to the border with the Russian Federation.

From 20 to 22 November 2018, the OSCE Mobile Training Team delivered an interactive national course on identifying foreign terrorist fighters at the borders for 25 first- and second-line border and security officers, including four female participants, in Astana...

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Mission followed up on reports of a grenade explosion in Khartsyzk in which a woman was injured and a man died. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential civilian infrastructure near Artema and Holmivskyi, as well as repairs to houses in Marinka and Krasnohorivka. It continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station. Access for the SMM remained restricted in all three disengagement areas, near Syvash and near Novoazovsk, an area close to the border with the Russian Federation.* The Mission monitored protests in Kyiv, Lviv and Chernivtsi.

Compared with the previous 24 hours, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The SMM followed up on reports of two civilians injured by shooting and shelling Zolote-5/Mykhailivka. The SMM observed heavy weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines in government-controlled areas of Donetsk region. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations near all three disengagement areas and observed armoured combat vehicles in the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM facilitated and monitored repairs to essential infrastructure near Artema and Zolote-4/Rodina, as well as repairs to houses in Marinka and Krasnohorivka. The Mission continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station. Access for the SMM remained restricted in all three disengagement areas, near Zaichenko as well as Izvaryne, an area close to the border with the Russian Federation.