OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Daily Report 122/2020 issued on 23 May 2020

Summary

• Compared with the previous reporting period, the Mission recorded more ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
• Small-arms fire was assessed as directed at SMM mini-UAVs near Petrivske and Vesela Hora, where bullets also flew over SMM members.
• The SMM followed up on reports of a man injured due to shelling in Shyroka Balka on 9 April, Donetsk region.
• Members of the armed formations continued to deny the Mission passage at checkpoints along official crossing routes in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.*
• The SMM saw craters, assessed as recent, near residential houses in Staromykhailivka, Donetsk region.
• It continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske. It recorded ceasefire violations inside the disengagement area near Petrivske and spotted during evening hours a person at a former position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces inside the disengagement area near Zolote.
• It saw mines, including some for the first time, near Maiorsk and Petrivske and in Zaitseve, Holmivskyi, and Staromykhailivka.
• The Mission continued following up on measures taken amid the COVID-19 outbreak, including at entry-exit checkpoints and their corresponding checkpoints in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
• The SMM’s freedom of movement continued to be restricted.*