News and press releases

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and fewer in Luhansk region. • The Mission continued to monitor the situation in the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. • The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near non-government-controlled Bile. • The Mission monitored adherence to the ceasefire to facilitate repairs to and the operation of essential civilian infrastructure, including repairs to a phenol sludge reservoir near Zalizne. • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued, including at a checkpoint in non-government-controlled Verkhnoshyrokivske.*

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. • The Mission continued to monitor the situation in the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. • The SMM saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. • The Mission monitored adherence to the ceasefire to facilitate repairs to and the operation of essential civilian infrastructure, including repairs to a phenol sludge reservoir. • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued, including at checkpoints in non-government-controlled Verkhnoshyrokivske and Donetsk city’s Petrovskyi district.

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the European Union Force in BiH (EUFOR) jointly organized a training workshop for Armed Forces of BiH on the management of weapons and ammunition storage from 20 to 22 August 2019. The event took place at the Laboratory for the Chemical and Thermal Analysis of Ammunition, which is situated in the Technical Workshop for Repair and Destruction of Ammunition (TROM) in Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina...

The 11th annual OSCE regional workshop “Explosive Hazards Reduction and Response: Countering Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IEDs)” is taking place in Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan 18-23 August, 2019. The five-day event brought together over thirty international experts to discuss recent developments in national, regional, and global C-IEDs strategies. The workshop was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek and the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe in close co-operation with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan...

MINSK, 21 August 2019 – 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 21 August 2019:

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and a similar number of ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. • A man was injured by a mine explosion near government-controlled Illienko in Luhansk region. • Small-arms fire was assessed as directed at SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle near Luhansk city. • The SMM continued to monitor the situation in the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. • The Mission saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region. • It saw a fortified position and trenches of the armed formations near Novooleksandrivka. • The SMM monitored adherence to the ceasefire to facilitate repairs to and the operation of essential civilian infrastructure, including repairs to a phenol sludge reservoir. • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued, including at a heavy weapons holding area in a government-controlled area of Donetsk region.

WARSAW, 22 August 2019 – Amid increasingly violent outbreaks of religious intolerance, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) welcomes the first-ever United Nations International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion today, and calls on governments to promote the interfaith dialogue and education needed to combat hatred and violence.