OSCE SMM Chief Monitor briefs Permanent Council

KYIV, 18 February 2022 – Against the background of heightened tensions, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine is navigating multiple challenges simultaneously, stated the Mission’s Chief Monitor, Yaşar Halit Çevik to the OSCE’s Permanent Council.

The Chief Monitor stressed that the tensions in and around Ukraine remain high, and, therefore, the Mission’s presence as an impartial observer is especially critical to counter heightened rhetoric and widespread disinformation with the objective facts, which the SMM provides on a daily basis.

The Chief Monitor also detailed the main challenges currently faced by the SMM, including acute freedom of movement constraints, the impact of the pandemic, and the current heightened tensions.

He noted that in the month following 22 December 2021, when the Trilateral Contact Group participants expressed their determination to adhere to the ceasefire, the SMM had observed a 60 per cent reduction in the number of ceasefire violations along the contact line, compared with the prior equivalent period. However, the sides have not taken any decisive steps to ensure that the security situation was further improved or at least sustained.  The Mission observed twice as many violations related to the use of Minsk proscribed weapons, and a continued backsliding in ceasefire violations in and around the disengagement areas.

The impasse in the exchange of security guarantees for repair works on critical civilian infrastructure remains another concern for the Mission, with 45 per cent fewer repairs and maintenance works being facilitated and monitored in 2021 compared to the preceding year.

“It is critical that the sides stop conditioning humanitarian initiatives on issues of a political nature,” Çevik stressed, adding that attempts to leverage the suffering of civilians for political gains was counterproductive and unacceptable.

The Chief Monitor noted that the SMM was aware of allegations on increased kinetic activity all along the contact line, including an incident in the area of Stanytsia Luhanska, and that the Mission was following up on these.

The Chief Monitor assured the Permanent Council members that the SMM continues to fulfil its core tasks despite the challenges caused by the withdrawal of international mission members by some participating States. He also underlined that the growing stranglehold on the Mission’s freedom of movement was an existential problem as it risked preventing the Mission from performing its mandated tasks.

In closing, the Chief Monitor reiterated that it was up to the sides to take the necessary steps to ensure a reduction of tensions on the ground, and at the same time emphasized that abstaining from inflammatory public rhetoric was essential.