News and press releases

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region compared with the previous reporting period and a similar number of ceasefire violations in Luhansk region compared with the previous reporting period. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske and recorded ceasefire violations near the Zolote disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas as well as, again, in Zaichenko in southern Donetsk region and at a border crossing point near Izvaryne, near the border with the Russian Federation.*

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched a new version of its free legislative database Legislationline.org on 27 July 2018. Created in 2002, the online database is designed to assist OSCE participating States in bringing their legislation into line with OSCE

Senior trade and customs officials from five Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, and their main trading partners – Russia and Turkey, received practical guidance on trade facilitation at a three-day annual training workshop on 26 July in Dushanbe. The event was jointly organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe hosted the workshop.

On 26 July at 06:35 (Moscow time), the seventy-seventh Russian convoy arrived at the Donetsk Border Crossing Point (BCP). A total of 21 vehicles were checked by Russian Federation border guards and customs officers prior to their crossing into Ukraine. All 21 vehicles had crossed back into the Russian Federation by 15:55 on 26 July.

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, compared with the previous reporting period. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske and recorded ceasefire violations inside the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas, as well as in Starolaspa.* The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Vesele, Svobodne, Khrustalnyi, Novoamvrosiivske and Starolaspa. The Mission continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station, including through monitoring the security situation around the station, as well as repairs and maintenance works to critical civilian infrastructure near Zalizne, Stanytsia Luhanska and Novotoshkivske, as well as in Popasna.

MINSK, 25 July 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 25 July 2018:

MINSK, 25 July 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 25 July 2018: