News and press releases

Promoting rural entrepreneurship for women was the focus of a two-day training seminar and roundtable discussion co-organized by the OSCE Programme Office that concluded on 29 March 2019 in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. The SMM followed up on reports of a woman and a boy injured due to shelling in Sentianivka. The Mission recorded a ceasefire violation inside the disengagement area near Zolote. It observed weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM saw anti-tank mines for the first time near Vodiane and Pikuzy. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential civilian infrastructure. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. In addition, it was restricted at a checkpoint near Novolaspa and at a heavy weapons holding area in a non-government-controlled area of Donetsk region, as well as near Zaichenko, Izvaryne and Sievernyi close to the border with the Russian Federation.*

Progress on implementing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) Law on Youth in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton was the main topic of a co-ordination meeting organized by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 29 March 2019 in Mostar.

KYIV, 30 March 2019 – The Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Ertugrul Apakan, expressed his gratitude to all 57 OSCE participating States for their support for the Mission, following a consensus decision yesterday to extend the SMM’s Mandate for another year.

VIENNA, 30 March 2019 – The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia, Miroslav Lajčák, welcomed yesterday's OSCE Permanent Council decision to renew the mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) by another year, and called for continued support for the international monitors and national staff on the ground.

VIENNA, 29 March 2019- The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan met today in Vienna for the first time under the auspices of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stéphane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America). The meeting was also attended by Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov. Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, also participated in the meeting.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and Luhansk region. The SMM saw fresh damage to a residential building in Chermalyk, as well as fresh craters close to residential buildings in Sentianivka. The Mission saw military presence inside the Petrivske disengagement area. Small-arms were fired in the direction of an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle near Lozove. It observed weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential civilian infrastructure. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. In addition, it was restricted at a checkpoint near Verkhnoshyrokivske and near Dovzhanske close to the border with the Russian Federation.*