You're reading: OSCE chairperson-in-office demands conflicting parties in Donbas guarantee monitors’ safety

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office Ivica Dacic has said he was alarmed by recent incidents in eastern Ukraine, i.e. in Schastia and Shyrokyne, in which monitors from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine were caught in fire exchanges, and demanded that all conflicting parties guarantee the mission's security and unfettered access across the oblast.

“I am alarmed and deeply concerned by the incidents in Schastia on 26 July and Shyrokyne on 27 July, especially when it appears our unarmed, civilian monitors were targeted,” the OSCE press service quoted Dacic as saying.

“All sides on the ground in eastern Ukraine are obliged under their commitments to the Minsk Agreements to ensure the safety, security and freedom of movement of the SMM,” he said.

He said that an SMM monitor who suffered a concussion and an injury to his leg in the incident in Shyrokyne had now been discharged from hospital.

Dacic commended “the bravery and diligence that monitors and staff of the SMM show every day in their work in increasingly difficult circumstances” and condemned “any incidents or actions that hamper the SMM’s work.”

Dacic also “reminded all sides of the urgent need to fully implement the ceasefire, to continue and enhance the withdrawal of heavy weapons, and to step up the political dialogue, in line with the Minsk Agreements.”

“All sides have an obligation to support the OSCE’s efforts and to continue work on a political process towards ending the deadly cycle of violence,” he said.