News and press releases

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission observed damage caused by gunfire to civilian properties in residential areas of Sakhanka and Horlivka, where it also followed up on reports of a civilian casualty. The SMM saw a de-miner injured by an explosion near the Donetsk Filtration Station. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations in the Petrivske disengagement area and observed a soldier carrying a weapon inside the Zolote disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere. The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Vodiane and Bohoiavlenka. The Mission continued to facilitate access for workers to and from the Donetsk Filtration Station; it also facilitated repairs to the Petrivske pumping station near Artema and to power lines near Semyhiria. In Kyiv, the SMM saw a makeshift memorial outside the Embassy of the Russian Federation honouring the victims of the shopping mall fire in Kemerovo in the Russian Federation...

KYIV, 29 March 2018 – Alexander Hug, the Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), will hold a news briefing on Friday via video link from eastern Ukraine.

On 29 March 2018 at 06:50 (Moscow time), the seventy-third Russian convoy arrived at the Donetsk Border Crossing Point (BCP). A total of 16 vehicles were checked by the Russian border guards and customs services prior to their crossing into Ukraine. All 16 vehicles had crossed back into the Russian Federation by 14:26 on 29 March.

TASHKENT, 29 March 2018 – The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Madina Jarbussynova, today concluded a four-day high-level visit to Uzbekistan. The aim of the trip was to discuss the country’s progress in implementing OSCE anti-trafficking commitments since the OSCE Special Representative’s previous visit in November 2013.

VIENNA, 29 March 2018 – The closure of the Özgürlükçü Demokrasi newspaper and appointing a trustee to head it is a major attack on the independence of this media outlet and another setback to media pluralism in Turkey, said Harlem Désir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, today following yesterday’s police raid on the newspaper’s office...

An OSCE-supported five-day cross-border training seminar on risk profiling at border checkpoints, which began in Karasu, Kazakhstan on 26 March 2018, is nearing conclusion.

Some 45 representatives from Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry, international organizations and civil society sector gathered for an OSCE-supported roundtable discussion on revising the country’s Environmental Code on 29 March 2018 in Astana...