News and press releases

BERLIN, 24 August 2016 – Following recent incidents targeting patrol teams of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) in the country’s east, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, issued the following statement...

Some 30 female candidates who will be standing for election to the local councils in the Batken and Osh provinces in southern Kyrgyzstan in November 2016 as well as civil society and media representatives are participating in the OSCE-supported Women’s Leadership School, which started on 23 August in Batken. The training course is organized in co-operation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the NGO Women’s Support Centre...

The SMM recorded a similar number of ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and an increase in the number recorded in Luhansk region.

ISSYK-KUL, Kyrgyzstan, 23 August 2016 – The OSCE Centre in Bishkek, the Mayor’s Office of Balykchy and the International Republican Institute signed today a memorandum of understanding to support a pilot project on improving municipal services delivery in the town of Balykchy, northern Kyrgyzstan, through a so-called “single window model”...

PRISHTINË/PRIŠTINA / VIENNA, 23 August 2016 – The Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Jean-Claude Schlumberger, and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, today condemned last night’s attack on the premises of Radio Television Kosovo (RTK) in Prishtinë/Priština...

At 14:28 on 22 August, an SMM patrol comprising four SMM staff members and a paramedic in two vehicles was stopped by three armed men at a checkpoint in “DPR”-controlled Lukove (72km south of Donetsk). One of them demanded in a hostile manner to search the SMM vehicles...

The SMM observed an increase in the number of explosions recorded in Donetsk region both on 20 August (over 430) and 21 August (over 540) compared to 19 August. In Luhansk region the SMM recorded more explosions (over 250) on 20 August and fewer explosions on 21 August (over 30) compared to 19 August. On two consecutive days, the Mission heard small-arms fire in close vicinity of its positions – in Novooleksandrivka and Novozvanivka respectively – while conducting mini-UAV flights. The SMM conducted crater analysis and observed the results of shelling on both sides of the contact line, in Marinka, Svitlodarsk, Hranitne, Pervomaiske, Veselohorivka, Komyshuvakha, Petrovskyi district, Yasynuvata, and Stanytsia Luhanska. The SMM monitored long queues at entry-exit checkpoint in Zaitseve/Horlivka and at Stanytsia Luhanska bridge, and facilitated and monitored adherence to the ceasefire to enable demining work and repairs at the bridge. The Mission monitored five border areas not controlled by the Government and continued to observe a calm situation along the administrative boundary line with Crimea. The SMM faced five freedom-of-movement restrictions, all in areas not controlled by the Government...