News and press releases

KYIV, 13 January 2015- The Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, today called upon all sides to exercise maximum restraint in eastern Ukraine...

The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum and the work of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC). According to the JCCC a significant increase of ceasefire violations was witnessed.

The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum and the work of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC). The SMM witnessed multiple instances of both incoming and outgoing shelling in areas of Donetsk city adjacent to the airport. The JCCC recorded a marked increase in reported ceasefire violations...

The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum and the work of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC). The JCCC reported an increased number of ceasefire violations, the majority occurring in and around the Donetsk airport.

On 08 January 2015 at 08:30 (Moscow time), a Russian convoy consisting of 62 vehicles arrived at the Donetsk Border Crossing Point (BCP). Cargo trucks were inspected by the Russian border guard and customs services. All the vehicles crossed back into the Russian Federation (RF) at 03:28 on January 09. This was the twelfth Russian convoy crossing through the Donetsk BCP since the arrival of the Observer Mission (OM) at the Russian BCPs.

BELGRADE, 9 January 2015- Following consultations of senior representatives of four Ministries of Foreign Affairs within the so-called Normandy format of 5 January 2015 in Berlin, and anticipating the possibility of discussions on the conflict in eastern Ukraine at a planned summit meeting in Astana on 15-16 January 2015, the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), consisting of senior representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, met on 8 and 9 January, and held another round of consultations with representatives of the certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the form of a video-conference on 9 January 2015.

The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum and the work of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC). There was an increased number of ceasefire violations recorded by the JCCC, mostly in and around Donetsk airport.