News and press releases

Compared with the previous 24 hours, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Small arms were fired in the direction of an SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle near Chermalyk, Donetsk region and close to SMM patrols in Popasna and Kriakivka, Luhansk region. The SMM recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area and an armoured combat vehicle in the Petrivske disengagement area. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repair works to essential civilian infrastructure in Donetsk and Luhansk regions as well as to enable the removal of an unexploded ordnance in Kriakivka, Luhansk region. Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The SMM was also restricted at two border crossing points with the Russian Federation near Izvaryne and Sievernyi...

Identifying and building a regional approach to countering hate crime was the focus of an event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Milan Bar Association and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, in Milan on 15 January 2019. The discussion

Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 11 and 12 January, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region. Between the evenings of 12 and 13 January, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions, compared with the previous 24 hours. Small arms were fired in the direction of an SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle near Chermalyk, Donetsk region. Small-arms fire damaged a house in a residential area of Chermalyk. The SMM recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area and near the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repair works to essential civilian infrastructure in Donetsk region. Participants of a gathering in Kherson demanded the release of a Crimean Tatar activist reportedly detained in Simferopol. Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The SMM was also restricted at a railway station in Voznesenivka, an area near the border with the Russian Federation...

COPENHAGEN, 14 January 2019 – With the persistence of a dangerous climate for journalists in many countries of the OSCE region, the leaders of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, Chair Margareta Kiener Nellen (MP, Switzerland), Vice-Chair Michael Georg Link (MP, Germany), and Rapporteur Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus), today called for increased attention to the importance of the safety of journalists. Recent developments demonstrate that journalists have been facing increasing repression, intimidation, physical attacks and restrictions on their freedom to work, they said...

VIENNA, 10 January 2019 – OSCE PA President George Tsereteli (Georgia) and Secretary General Roberto Montella welcomed the priorities outlined by the new OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Slovakia’s Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajcak, in his address to the OSCE Permanent Council today.

COPENHAGEN, 14 January 2019- The leaders of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, Chair Margareta Kiener Nellen (MP, Switzerland), Vice-Chair Michael Georg Link (MP, Germany), and Rapporteur Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (MP, Cyprus), today called for urgent steps by Turkish authorities to ensure the safety of Member of Parliament Leyla Güven, imprisoned pending trial.

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region. • The SMM recorded ceasefire violations and saw military presence and anti-aircraft guns inside the Zolote disengagement area. It recorded ceasefire violations near the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. • The Mission 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 repair works to essential civilian infrastructure in Luhansk region. • In Kyiv, the Mission monitored a protest during which protestors expressed views critical of veterans and of the Ministry for Veterans Affairs. • In Zhytomyr, the SMM monitored a court hearing of a journalist accused of involvement in anti-state activities. • Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas.*...