News and press releases

CHISINAU, 19 January 2019 – Concluding his visit to Moldova today, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Slovak Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miroslav Lajčák said Slovakia’s 2019 OSCE Chairmanship attaches great importance to advancing the Transdniestrian Settlement Process as part of Slovakia’s focus on the prevention and mediation of conflicts, and in mitigating their impact on people.

Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The SMM saw damage from gunfire to a residential house in Zolote-4/Rodina. The Mission recorded ceasefire violations inside the Zolote disengagement area. The SMM saw weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. The Mission followed up on reports that a woman had died while waiting at a checkpoint near Horlivka. Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas. The SMM was also restricted at a border crossing point with the Russian Federation near Voznesenivka. In Kherson, the SMM monitored a court hearing at which the pre-trial detention of the former editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti Ukraine was extended...

VIENNA, 18 January 2019 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli (Georgia) has wrapped up a visit to Vienna, in which he addressed the ambassadors of the OSCE’s 57 participating States and held a number of bilateral meetings with OSCE counterparts...

MINSK, 18 January 2019 – 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 17 January 2019:...

VIENNA, 17 January 2019 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli (MP, Georgia) and OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella met on Wednesday with the President of the Austrian National Council and Head of the Delegation of Austria to the OSCE PA, Wolfgang Sobotka...

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions. • The Mission recorded military presence inside and ceasefire violations near the Zolote disengagement area. • The SMM saw weapons in violation of the withdrawal lines on both sides of the contact line. • The Mission saw long queues of civilians waiting to travel across the contact line. • In Odessa, the SMM followed up on reports of a public gathering in front of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation. It saw splashes of red paint on the ground in front of the Consulate... • Restrictions of the SMM’s access continued in all three disengagement areas.*

KYIV, 17 January 2019 – Concluding a two-day official visit to Ukraine, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Slovakia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák said he was shocked by the alarming conditions of people living near the contact line in the country’s east, and called on the sides to step up their efforts for a peaceful political solution to the crisis.