News and press releases

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, compared with the previous reporting period. The SMM followed up on reports of civilian casualties in Krasnohorivka and Zoria. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations near the Petrivske disengagement area. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas as well as near Zaichenko and near Dovzhanske, near the border with the Russian Federation.* The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Muratove and Kreminna. The Mission continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station, including through monitoring the security situation around the station, as well as repairs and maintenance works to other essential civilian infrastructure near Zalizne, Zaitseve, Novotoshkivske, Raivka and Stanytsia Luhanska. The SMM monitored a court hearing in Kherson and a gathering in Kyiv.

BISHKEK, 12 July 2018- The OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek (POiB) and United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) co-organized a seminar on Central Asia-Afghanistan policy partnership. The purpose of the event was an exchange of views on establishing policy partnerships at the expert-analytical level and deepening ties among researchers in the region.

The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe completed its activities aimed at building community resilience against terrorist radicalization and violent extremism at grassroots level in the Sughd region on 12 July 2018...

VIENNA, 12 July 2018- Co-operation between the OSCE’s participating States and role of public-private partnerships in enhancing cyber stability between States was the focus of today’s OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna.

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region, compared with the previous reporting period, and no ceasefire violations in Luhansk region. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it again observed military presence inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM’s access remained restricted in all three disengagement areas. Its access was also restricted near Khrustalnyi, Zaichenko and Kozatske, as well as near Izvaryne and Sievernyi, near the border with the Russian Federation, and near Druzheliubivka in Kherson region.* The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Starolaspa, Novooleksandrivka and Khrustalnyi. The Mission continued to facilitate the operation of the Donetsk Filtration Station, including through monitoring the security situation around the station, as well as repairs and maintenance works to other essential civilian infrastructure near Zalizne, Artema, Stanytsia Luhanska, Novotoshkivske and Raivka. The SMM monitored two gatherings in Kyiv, a gathering in Dnipro and followed up on court cases in Kharkiv region related to the fishing ship Nord...

BRUSSELS, 12 July 2018- The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) hosted an introductory meeting between Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov on 11 July in Brussels. Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meeting. This was the first high-level meeting between the sides in this format since elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan.

More than 500 officials and civil society representatives from across Ukraine were trained on how state-funded social services can be delivered by non-governmental organizations, in a series of eight seminars organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine from May to July. The last workshop in the series, which took place in Poltava, ended on 12 July 2018. The others were held in Kyiv, Odesa, Vinnitsa, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Kramatorsk and Dnipro.