More efforts needed to achieve comprehensive ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, says OSCE Chief Monitor in Ukraine

VIENNA, 19 July 2018 – While a new recommitment to cease fire that came into effect on 1 July has brought an immediate decrease in violence, a comprehensive ceasefire is yet to be reached, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), Ertugrul Apakan, said in his address to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna today.

The Chief Monitor said that during May and June the SMM recorded an increase in the number of ceasefire violations per week. The latest recommitment has led to an improvement of the security situation, including an 85 per cent decrease in kinetic activity along the contact line in the first seven days after the recommitment. “However, additional measures to strengthen the ceasefire are critically needed as the SMM still continues to register ceasefire violations,” he said.

Referring to the general security situation in eastern Ukraine, Apakan noted that the SMM also continued to register the use and presence of weapons that should have been withdrawn according to the Minsk agreements. The SMM has also observed newly placed mines on both sides of the contact line.

“Civilians on both sides of the contact line are the ones who suffer the most from the continuing non-compliance. The sides should find ways to take measures to alleviate human suffering,” Apakan concluded. “The Mission will continue to implement its mandate and contribute to peace, normalization and stabilization of the situation in Ukraine.”