News and press releases

Clashes in Donetsk between the Ukrainian army and armed separatists continued. Eleven monitors of the SMM were abducted for 7 hours, four others, abducted on 26 May, are still missing. The situation also remained tense in Luhansk, whereas other parts of the country were calm. In Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv, minor members of the Right Sector were held for several hours by armed individuals...

Bern, 28 May, 2014- Didier Burkhalter, Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE and Swiss Foreign Minister, said that the detention of monitors of the Special Monitoring Mission cannot be tolerated and was undermining the important work of the Mission which was agreed upon by the 57 participating States of the OSCE on March 21. The detentions were acts of sabotage of international efforts to assist Ukraine in overcoming the crisis, Burkhalter continued.

Clashes in Donetsk between the Ukrainian army and armed separatists continued. The situation was also tense in Luhansk. Other parts of the country remained calm...

This update is provided for the media and the public

KYIV, 27 May 2014- On Monday evening at around 18:00 the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine lost contact with one of its Donetsk-based teams...

The situation in Donbas remained tense, but unchanged comparedto previous days.Public security and safety continue to be a concern in Donetsk city. The elections did not take place in much of Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Other parts of the country were calm and the elections passed peacefully.

BERN, 26 May 2014 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister, Didier Burkhalter, rates the early presidential elections in Ukraine of May 25 as an important milestone in the process of de-escalation of the crisis. He thanked the election observation mission of the OSCE Office Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) to Ukraine and the observation delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly for their invaluable work...