The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is to extend its Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine by one year, until March 31, 2018, the organization’s press service reported on March 16. The decision to renew the mission’s mandate in Ukraine was approved by all 57 OSCE member states during an OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna, Austria. Austria is currently presiding over the organization.
The decision to renew the mission’s mandate in Ukraine was approved by all 57 OSCE member states during an OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna, Austria. Austria is currently presiding over the organization.
The council decision also set the mission’s budget at 105.5 million euros for the forthcoming year. According to earlier reports, on March 13-14, monitors working for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recorded 740 explosions all along the line of contact that separates Ukrainian government forces from the Russian-backed forces that have seized control of parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
According to earlier reports, on March 13-14, monitors working for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recorded 740 explosions all along the line of contact that separates Ukrainian government forces from the Russian-backed forces that have seized control of parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.Most of the violations of the ceasefire that is supposed to be in effect occurred in the “hotspot” areas of Avdiyivka, Yasynuvata, and Donetsk, and Svitlodarsk and Debaltseve. Intense artillery and firearms exchanges and outbreaks of close combat between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian-backed forces were also recorded in the suburbs of Luhansk, in the nearby town of Stanytsya Luhanska, and east of Mariupol, a city on the south coast of Donetsk Oblast.
Most of the violations of the ceasefire that is supposed to be in effect occurred in the “hotspot” areas of Avdiyivka, Yasynuvata, and Donetsk, and Svitlodarsk and Debaltseve. Intense artillery and firearms exchanges and outbreaks of close combat between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian-backed forces were also recorded in the suburbs of Luhansk, in the nearby town of Stanytsya Luhanska, and east of Mariupol, a city on the south coast of Donetsk Oblast.
In a statement issued on March 15, the OSCE’s chairperson-in-office, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, called on the opposing sides to comply with their commitments and maintain the ceasefire. He also stressed that the OSCE’s monitoring activities remain restricted, and that there is growth in the number of incidents of intimidation of monitors, denying them access to certain frontline zones, and the destruction of their equipment, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
The OSCE’s latest report informs that over the past days the OSCE recorded at least two cases of aggressive behavior by Russian-backed militants towards the organization’s monitors, with threats of arrest and intimidating shots being fired. “Threatening unarmed civilian monitors and OSCE assets is unacceptable,” Kurz said on March 15.
“Threatening unarmed civilian monitors and OSCE assets is unacceptable,” Kurz said on March 15.
“Those responsible must be held accountable.”
