News and press releases

Best practices in environmental management in oil and gas sector were the topic of an OSCE-Centre in Ashgabat-organized seminar that took place on 8 and 9 July 2021 in a video conference format.

KYIV, 09 July 2021 – “The security situation in eastern Ukraine is not improving and challenges are becoming acute”, said Ambassador Y. Halit Çevik, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, in his address to the OSCE Permanent Council yesterday.

Summary In Donetsk region, the Mission recorded 75 ceasefire violations, including 63 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded 136 ceasefire violations in the region. In Luhansk region, the SMM recorded ten ceasefire violations, including nine explosions. In the previous reporting

At 11:25 on 7 July, the SMM arrived at a site about 1.5km south-west of the southern edge of Vilkhivka (non-government-controlled, 40km east of Donetsk) to conduct an announced mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight to monitor the security situation in the area. At 11:30 while conducting the flight, a light utility vehicle, carrying two armed members of the armed formations, approached the SMM from a southerly direction. One of them requested the Mission to land the UAV, delete its imagery and leave the area or the aircraft would be shot down. The same member of the armed formations told the SMM to wait until he called his “superiors”...

The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe completed two and a half-week training course on “Rescue on Water” for representatives of Tajikistan’s Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence (Committee) in Dushanbe on 7 July 2021.

PRISTINA, 8 July 2021 — OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde concluded her visit to Kosovo together with the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Åsa Regnér, today. The programme included meetings with the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Kosovo authorities and civil society. Linde encouraged authorities to focus further on gender equality and women’s and girl’s enjoyment of human rights, in particular the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The Swedish Chairpersonship aims to integrate the Women, Peace and Security agenda into the daily work of the OSCE structures...

The OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department released a Russian-language version of its new e-learning course on OSCE cyber/ICT security Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) on 8 July 2021.