DONETSK - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) supports the initiatives to make checkpoints more efficient and open new ones for civilians on the contact line, Alexander Hug, deputy head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), said.
The OSCE SMM is assisting the dialogue between the parties on the opening of more checkpoints, one example being a checkpoint in Kominternove, and efforts are underway to find possible itineraries for moving around Luhansk Oblast, Hug told reporters on May 31.
The OSCE supports any initiatives to raise the checkpoints’ efficiency in order to reduce lines and increase safety in these areas, he added.
That requires separating the forces and demining around these checkpoints, he said.
The OSCE mission has registered some fighting activity near Dokuchayevsk, Hug added. This also affects the crossing of the contact line near Berezove and Olenivka, where the parties are too close to each other, creating tensions and making the situation unpredictable, Hug said.
Around 8,000 residents on both sides of the contact line remain without water because the pump station broke down as a result of shelling and still has not been repaired because of the continued fighting, he said.
