News and press releases

The situation across the country was calm. Four SMM monitors from the Donetsk team have been missing for 30 days and four SMM monitors from the Luhansk team for 27 days.

30- this is the number of days civilian, international monitors of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine have been held captive in eastern Ukraine. Although four members of the Donetsk-based team were freed on 26 June, four members of the Luhansk-based monitoring team are still being held. 30- this is the number of days their families, friends and colleagues are waiting for them. We call for their immediate and unconditional release. For updates follow us on Facebook- facebook.com/oscesmmu and Twitter- twitter.com/OSCE_SMM

The situation across the country was calm except in parts of Donbas, where tensions remained. In Lviv an office of the Russian-owned ‘Sberbank’ was vandalised. Four SMM monitors from the Donetsk team have been missing for 29 days and four SMM monitors from the Luhansk team for 26 days...

The situation across the country was calm, except in parts of Donbas, where tensions remained. Sloviansk’s ‘mayor’ warned about the risk of an ecological catastrophe affecting Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Four SMM monitors from the Donetsk team have been missing for 28 days and four SMM monitors from the Luhansk team for 25 days.

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.

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...

The situation across the country was calm, except parts of Donbas where tensions remained. Donetsk city remains outwardly calm, with no substantive change to the security situation. In a significant and positive development, the SMM has made contact with both the Donetsk team and the Luhansk team, which have been missing since 26 May and 29 May respectively.