News and press releases

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It saw fresh damage to a residential house in Shchastia. The Mission saw multiple launch rocket systems in violation of the withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The Mission monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to essential civilian infrastructure in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It observed the presence of mines and explosive remnants of war in Donetsk region. Restrictions of the Mission’s access continued in all three disengagement areas and near non-government-controlled Bezimenne and Dovzhanske, an area near the border with the Russian Federation. In Kyiv, the SMM saw posters in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation demanding the release of sailors following the incidents at sea, near the Kerch Strait...

The Montenegrin Ministry of Culture hosted a roundtable discussion on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on National Public Broadcaster Radio-Television of Montenegro, on 8 March 2019 in Podgorica. The meeting was organized with the support of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, the Council of Europe (CoE) and the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro...

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) organized a co-ordination meeting on March 6 in Mostar to discuss the process of investigation and court proceedings in cases involving representatives of the migrant population who hold the status of victim or suspect. The event was held together with the Prosecutor’s Office of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton.

NEW YORK/VIENNA, 8 March 2019- OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Slovakia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák and OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger welcomed the new recommitment to cease fire in eastern Ukraine that came into effect today at 00:01 (Kyiv time) and should bring a decrease in violence...

VIENNA, 8 March 2019 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today called on the Ukrainian authorities to reverse the entry ban to Ukraine imposed on Christian Wehrschütz, a journalist with the Austrian Public Service Broadcaster (ORF)...

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Lamberto Zannier visited Latvia from 5 to 8 March 2019, in his first visit to the country in his current capacity, to assess the state of inter-ethnic relations and the integration of society.  Zannier had a series of meetings in Riga, including with

VIENNA, 8 March 2019 – Greater efforts are needed to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls occurring both in private and public life, which prevents them from being full and equal participants in society, said OSCE senior officials on the occasion of International Women’s Day.