News and press releases

TASHKENT, 20 May 2019 – Kicking off his tour of three Central Asian countries at its very heart, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Slovakia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister, Miroslav Lajčák, today opened the new OSCE premises in Uzbekistan...

Compared with the previous reporting period, between the evenings of 17 and 18 May, the Mission recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Between the evenings of 18 and 19 May, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer in Luhansk region, compared with the previous 24 hours. Explosions occur close to the SMM near the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM observed damage caused by small-arms fire in residential houses in Zolote-5/Mykhailivka and fresh craters in Pervomaisk. The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The Mission’s freedom of movement was also restricted at checkpoints in non-government-controlled Staromykhailivka, Verkhnoshyrokivske and Donetsk city, as well as at a heavy weapons holding area in a government-controlled area...

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro wishes to congratulate the citizens of Montenegro on the occasion of their Independence Day...

Election experts from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) were in Serbia from 14 to 17 May 2019 to meet government officials and international organization representatives as well as civil society, for the first in a series of visits across the region under the

The importance of introducing gender-responsive budgeting into the state budget was the topic of an OSCE-supported workshop for nine members of parliament and seven state officials from the Ministry of Finance and the State Statistical Office (MONSTAT), on 14 May 2019 in Podgorica...

A two-day high-level conference on “International and Regional Co-operation on Countering Terrorism and Its Financing through Illicit Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime” concluded in Dushanbe on 17 May 2019. The Government of Tajikistan organized the event in close co-operation with the OSCE, the United Nations, and the European Union...

Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A woman was injured from shelling in Oleksandrivka. The Mission observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The SMM facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable repairs to and the operation of critical civilian infrastructure. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The Mission’s freedom of movement was also restricted near government-controlled Bohdanivka and near non-government-controlled Zaichenko, Bezimenne and Novoazovsk, all in southern Donetsk region.* The Mission saw an LGBTIQ rights gathering and counter-gathering in Chernivtsi.