News and press releases

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. • A man from Chermalyk died from shrapnel injuries. • The SMM saw fresh damage caused by gunfire to civilian properties in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka and Marinka, and craters caused by shelling near residential houses in Khreshchatytske. • Inside the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area, the SMM continued to observe demining activities and the operation of a shuttle bus service. • The Mission saw anti-tank mines and a wire obstacle on the road inside the Zolote disengagement area. • It saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines in non-government-controlled areas of Luhansk region; specifically, it saw mortars near Sentianivka and multiple launch rocket systems in a training area near Miusynsk. • The SMM saw for the first time unexploded ordnance near Molodizhne and in Sentianivka.

COPENHAGEN, 17 July 2019 – Some 60 observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, including 42 parliamentarians from 20 countries, are deploying to Ukraine this week for the 21 July parliamentary elections. Finnish parliamentarian Ilkka Kanerva will serve as Special Co-ordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission, following an appointment by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak...

VIENNA, 17 July 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, welcomed today’s court decision to acquit two journalists and a human rights defender in Turkey...

Compared with the previous 24 hours, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The SMM saw fresh damage caused by gunfire to civilian properties in Dokuchaievsk and Marinka. Inside the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area, the SMM continued to observe demining activities; it also observed that a shuttle bus service had been introduced to transport people from an area south of the entry-exit checkpoint to the broken section of the bridge and in opposite direction. It saw weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The Mission facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to facilitate repairs of critical civilian infrastructure on both sides of the contact line, including to water pipelines in government-controlled Artema and power lines in non-government-controlled Zolote-5/Mykhailivka. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued, including at checkpoints near Zaichenko, Bezimenne and Novoazovsk, all in non-government-controlled areas of southern Donetsk region...

KAMENSK-SHAKHTINSKIY, Russian Federation. The Observer Mission (OM) continues to operate 24/7 at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs). The overall number of border crossings by persons increased at both BCPs compared to the previous week...

• Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 12 and 13 July, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. • Between the evenings of 13 and 14 July, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous 24 hours. • A man was injured by shrapnel in Horlivka and another man was injured by a bullet in Dokuchaievsk. • The SMM saw damage from shelling to and near civilian properties, including a school, in Lukove and to a day-clinic in Khreshchatytske, as well as from small-arms fire to a residential building in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka. • Inside the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area, the SMM saw members of the State Emergency Service conducting demining activities.

VIENNA, 15 July 2019 – Multilateralism and co-operation lie at the core of the OSCE’ comprehensive concept of security, participants said today at the opening of a two-day OSCE meeting in Vienna...