News and press releases

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and more in Luhansk region compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission again asked armed forces and formations about the recommitment to cease fire, as well as instructions on interaction with the SMM. The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske; it recorded ceasefire violations near the Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement area. Its access remained restricted in the disengagement areas and elsewhere, including in Verkhnoshyrokivske, Novolaspa and Svitle.* The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Shymshynivka and Buhaivka. It facilitated and monitored repairs and maintenance to the Horlivka-Toretsk pipeline and the thermal power plant in Shchastia. The Mission continued to monitor the situation at schools near the contact line on both sides. It visited two border areas not under government control. The SMM monitored two protests in Kyiv....

VIENNA, 7 September 2017 – The Independent Forensic Investigation (IFI) team today presented its report to the Permanent Council of the OSCE on the tragic incident of 23 April 2017, when an OSCE armoured vehicle was struck by an explosion resulting in the death of an OSCE paramedic. The IFI team was assembled and deployed by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission at the request of the OSCE...

MINSK, 7 September 2017 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG and its working groups in Minsk on 6 September 2017:...

An OSCE-supported regional conference on transboundary water co-operation in Central Asia took place on 7 September 2017 in Almaty, Kazakhstan... 

The OSCE Guidebook on Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) was promoted on 6 September 2017 in Skopje, during a regional event which brought together some 50 representatives of the public security sector from South-Eastern European countries...

Twenty-one officers of the Tajik Border Troops and Afghan Border Police successfully completed a three-week training-of-trainers course on 6 September 2017 organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe...

KYIV, 6 September 2017 – The Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Ertugrul Apakan, today called on the sides involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine to respect the freedom of movement of the OSCE SMM monitors...