News and press releases

BERLIN, 21 December 2016 – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today welcomed the declaration of the Trilateral Contact Group in which the sides recommitted to a comprehensive, sustainable and durable ceasefire starting from 24 December 2016 and reconfirmed their will to implement the Minsk agreements and to continue the Minsk process effectively in the year 2017.

A regional conference on the Aarhus Centres’ co-operation with public administration on national and local levels, organized by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Montenegro’s Sustainable Development and Tourism Ministry and the NGO Ozon/Aarhus Centre Nikšić was held on 21 December 2016 in Podgorica...

ROME, 21 December 2016 – Thirteen representatives of different Belarusian state institutions, local administrations and Aarhus Centres today completed a three-day study tour to Rome on implementing the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. The visit was co-organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA)...

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period, while recording some 730 explosions in Donetsk region. The majority of ceasefire violations, including the use of multiple-launch rocket systems, artillery and mortar, were concentrated in the Svitlodarsk-Debaltseve-Horlivka area. The SMM followed up on reports of shelling in Sakhanka and Kalynove. The SMM continued monitoring the three disengagement areas in Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske, and its access was again restricted.* The Mission observed proscribed weapons in violation of the respective withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM monitored a border crossing point currently not under government control in Luhansk region. In Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk the SMM observed peaceful gatherings...

CHISINAU, 21 December 2016 – A three-day advanced training course on challenges to combat banking fraud and financial disruption, and greater understand the role of crypto currencies, concluded today in Chisinau for representatives of financial intelligence agencies in charge of combating money laundering from Central Asia, Moldova, Ukraine and Western Balkans. The course was organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)...

KYIV, 21 December 2016 – The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) will hold its regular news briefing on Thursday, 22 December in Kyiv.

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...