News and press releases

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region (18 explosions compared with 95 on 31 August) and also in Luhansk region...

WARSAW, 2 September 2016 – Michael Georg Link, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), today expressed concern over the mob violence against the Roma community in the village of Loshchynivka, Ukraine, in the Odesa region, and called on Ukrainian authorities to speak up against anti-Roma rhetoric and violence, immediately address interethnic tension and restore respect for the rule of law...

Joint initiatives to promote human rights protection in Armenia were the focus of a meeting hosted by the OSCE Office in Yerevan with Armenia’s Human Rights Defender’s (Ombudsperson) Office on 31 August 2016...

Terrorist attacks have shaken the OSCE region and beyond causing horror, fear, anger, grief and despair. The attacks have forcefully added to the OSCE participating States’ concerns about how to prevent and fight terrorism to keep our societies safe...

DUSHANBE, 2 September 2016 – A two-day working meeting of the network of 18 OSCE-supported Women’ Resource Centres (WRCs) concluded today in Dushanbe. Bringing together some 36 participants, the meeting focused on the management aspects of the WRCs: their co-ordination, exchange of information, good practices and future perspectives...

MINSK, 1 September 2016- A Trilateral Contact Group meeting by video-conference took place in Kyiv today 01 September 2016 with the purpose to confirm the ceasefire announced and observed from 00.00, 01 September. Video-conference was also attended by SMM Chief Monitor Ambassador Apakan as well as RF and Ukrainian representatives in JCCC – Generals Medvedskiy and Kremenetskiy accordingly...

The SMM recorded substantially fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region (95 explosions compared with 520 on 30 August) but a much higher number of violations in Luhansk region (155 explosions compared with ten on 30 August). The SMM evacuated its forward patrol base in Shchastia during the night of 30 August due to mortar rounds assessed as landing close to its base; the SMM returned to the base during the day of 31 August. The SMM followed up on reports of civilian casualties and observed numerous cases of damage to civilian property when conducting shelling assessments in Krasnohorivka, Horlivka, Lobacheve, Raivka, Irmino, and Novooleksandrivka. The SMM continued to observe heavy weapons missing from storage locations in government- and non-government-controlled areas. The SMM also monitored the results of shelling on and military personnel in proximity of schools. The SMM continued to monitor a calm situation along the administrative boundary line between the Ukrainian mainland and Crimea...