News and press releases

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission confirmed reports of civilian casualties in Avdiivka and Staromykhailivka. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas; it recorded ceasefire violations near the Zolote and Stanytsia Luhanska disengagement areas, and an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle spotted tracks of an armoured combat vehicle and a crater in the Petrivske disengagement area. The Mission’s access remained restricted in all three areas and elsewhere, including in Popasna and Novoazovsk.* The SMM observed weapons in violation of withdrawal lines near Shchastia, Bakhmut and Nikishyne. It facilitated and monitored mine and unexploded ordnance clearance, co-ordinated by the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination, along the M03 road between Svitlodarsk and Debaltseve, and observed clearance activities in Pryshyb, Nikishyne, and Pyshchevyk. The Mission continued to observe mines and unexploded ordnance, as well as mine hazard signs, on both sides of the contact line. The SMM facilitated repairs to four pieces of critical infrastructure in Luhansk region. It visited two border areas not under government control...

MINSK, 20 July 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 19 July 2017:..

VIENNA, 20 July 2017 – The mandate of the OSCE Observer Mission at the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk was extended by three months to 31 October 2017 following a consensus decision today by participating States at the OSCE Permanent Council...

VIENNA, 20 July 2017 – Recognizing that shared challenges require common solutions, Italy’s Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2018 will work to capture the ‘authentic spirit of Helsinki’ and encourage a sense of responsibility and solidarity on the part of each of the OSCE’s 57 participating States to address the multitude of security threats facing the region, Italy’s Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said today as he addressed the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on the upcoming Chairmanship’s priorities.

COPENHAGEN, 20 July 2017 – The three officers of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions – Chair Ignacio Sanchez Amor (Spain), Vice-Chair Ivana Dobesova (Czech Republic) and Rapporteur Kyriakos Kyriakou-Hadjiyianni (Cyprus) – today issued the following statement regarding the one-year anniversary of Turkey’s state of emergency...

Journalists from Turkmenistan’s media, judges from the supreme, city and district courts, lawyers from the bar association and participated in an OSCE-supported training course on the journalists’ rights and duties on 19-20 July 2017 in Ashgabat...

VIENNA, 20 July 2017 – On the first anniversary of the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet in Ukraine, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today called on the national authorities in all OSCE participating States to do their utmost to end impunity for attacks and murders of journalists...