News and press releases

The situation across the country was calm, except parts of Donbas where tensions remained. In Luhansk a military convoy, of unknown origin, consisting of three tanks and ten BTRs (armoured personnel carriers), was seen. The Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) observed customs procedures on the administrative boundary line between Kherson region and Crimea. Four SMM monitors from the Donetsk team have been missing for 26 days and four SMM monitors from the Luhansk team for 23 days.

Bern, June 20, 2014- Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Didier Burkhalter, welcomed today’s announcement of a ceasefire by the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko.

The situation across the country was calm, except parts of Donbas where tensions remained. Donetsk city remained calm, with no substantive change to the security situation. The Donetsk team has been missing for 25 and the Luhansk team for 22 days. The SMM Head Office, in co-operation with the Office in Ukraine of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), have organized and have begun to implement a joint training programme of monitors from each of the ten teams on the topic of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The purpose of this UNHCR-facilitated training, carried out over the next three weeks, is to strengthen the capacity of the SMM to monitor and report on the situation regarding IDPs...

COPENHAGEN, 20 June 2014 – Ensuring the security and human dignity of migrants and openly addressing the issue of political prisoners are among the key recommendations proposed by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions (Third Committee) in its draft resolution for the PA's upcoming Annual Session...

PRISHTINË/PRIŠTINA, 20 June 2014 – The OSCE Mission will present its report on how municipalities in Kosovo comply with language rights, at a conference in Pejё/Peć this coming Monday...

ASHGABAT, 20 June 2014 – The use of new technologies in journalism and online journalism skills were the focus of an OSCE-organized training course that concluded in Ashgabat today...

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo concluded a five-day training course on 20 June 2014 on airport security for Prishtinë/Priština airport managers, police and customs officers, at the Kosovo Academy on Public Safety in Vushtrri/Vučitrn...