News and press releases

A five-day training course aimed at further strengthening the capacity of Kazakhstan to counter terrorist financing was organized in Burabay, Kazakhstan, from 11 to 15 June 2019. The training seminar was delivered to participants from the capital and from the country’s Akmola, Aktobe and Karaganda regions.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region. The SMM saw damage to a functioning school and to a shop in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka, to a house in Dokuchaievsk and to two apartments in a residential building in Yasne. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations inside the Stanytsia Luhanska and Zolote disengagement areas. The SMM monitored a protest against the lack of running water in Kostiantynivka. It spotted military trucks travelling back and forth between a railway station and a warehouse in non-government-controlled Sukhodilsk near the border with the Russian Federation. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in non-government-controlled areas at checkpoints near Verkhnoshyrokivske and in Prymorske and Sosnivske.

ISTANBUL, 14 June 2019- Concluding his four-day official visit to Turkey, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, today called on the Turkish authorities to urgently address and reverse current media freedom violations and pressure that journalists face.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. The SMM saw damage from shelling to two residential properties and fresh craters in Nova Marivka, as well as damage to a house in Travneve and craters near a gas pipeline near Novoluhanske. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations and observed an extended trench inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM saw a surface-to-air missile system in violation of withdrawal lines in Khreshchatytske. It saw pieces of unexploded ordnance for the first time in Popasna and Hruzko-Lomivka. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and elsewhere.

Bratislava, 14 June 2019- Following a meeting with President Zelensky on 13 June, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Slovakia’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajčák calls on the international community to support the Ukrainian President's constructive steps towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis in and around Ukraine. He also offers the full support of the Slovak Chairmanship in this endeavour.

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro supported the State Election Commission (SEC) in developing a strategic work plan identifying key activities for 2019 and 2020 by organizing a three-day workshop from 12 to 14 June in Podgorica. The workshop was attended by five commissioners and ten service staff members...

On 14 June 2019 in Baku, the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities together with the Director of the Port of Baku launched the project Promoting Green Ports and Connectivity in the Caspian Sea Region...