Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 14 September 2014

This report is for media and the general public.

The SMM continued to observe the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in light of the Minsk Protocol on the non-use of weapons. The SMM received numerous accounts indicating breaches of these arrangements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The situation was calm in Kharkiv.

The commander of the Ukrainian checkpoint in Zolote (67km north-east of Luhansk), the last before territory controlled by the ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’ (‘LPR’), called the SMM three times on 13 September alleging breaches of the ‘non-use of weapons’ regime: According to the commander, shelling from Pervomaisk had occurred in or near Zolote on 13 September at 11:30, at 15:00 and at 20:30.

On 14 September the SMM witnessed mortar shelling in a food market located in the northern district of Donetsk (Kyivskyi neighbourhood). Four shells impacted and exploded within 20 seconds about 200m from the team’s position. The SMM also saw evidence that mortar rounds had hit the market causing fatalities shortly before the SMM’s arrival.  (See SMM spot report of 14 September 2014 for detail). A local resident told the SMM later that her house, located 5 minutes from the market, had been shelled on 9 September, and almost all its inhabitants had been spending nights in the cellar due to frequent shelling in the area. 

The SMM saw that a local school in the town of Mospyne (15km south-east of Donetsk) had been damaged by artillery fire and was not functional. One local resident said that the school had been shelled on 13-15 August. She also said that water and electricity supply in the city had been repaired about a week ago, but pensions had not been paid for more than two months. The SMM observed that the local coalmine was no longer operational due to damage to its superstructure caused by shelling; the town hospital was also heavily damaged. Impacts of shelling were also visible on a local church.

The SMM visited, on 13 and 14 September, several checkpoints and villages in the eastern vicinities of Mariupol. At ‘Skhidnyi’ checkpoint, the personnel claimed to the SMM on 13 September that, 40 minutes prior to the SMM’s arrival, they came under small arms fire. The SMM noticed reinforcement work at this checkpoint.

Villagers of Kominternove (24km east of Mariupol) said on 13 September, that they had heard artillery fire from the east, earlier in the morning. According to them, artillery impacts over duration of 40 minutes were heard in the village on 12 September. One local interlocutor stated that remaining inhabitants (around 20% of the total population of the village) had been sleeping in the basements of their houses for the last two weeks.

On 14 September, during an SMM review, staff of several checkpoints located east of Mariupol (‘Skhidnyi’, Staryi Schlakh, Talakivka and Vynohradne), reported no shooting nor other incidents over the past 24 hours. Residents of Kominternove told the SMM that the previous night had been quiet in the village, gas or electricity had been cut for several days. At the checkpoint in Hnutove (25km north-east of Mariupol) Ukrainian personnel reported artillery shelling, which had occurred after midnight 13/14 September, with both salvos and single shots. They claimed it had come from more than 10km away, from the direction of the town of Telmanove (approximately 50km north-east of Mariupol).

Representatives of the municipal authorities of Kryvyi Rih (137km south-west of Dnipropetrovsk) told the SMM on 12 September that the number of IDPs had increased rapidly from 3,284 three weeks ago, to 5,250 as of 12 September. Until 5 September, the day when the Minsk Protocol was signed, an average of 150-200 IDPs had been arriving daily. These numbers afterwards dropped to 50 persons a day. The interlocutors said that IDPs often came back to Donbas without informing the IDP registration centre, and returnees in many cases retained their accommodation in Kryvyi Rih. They said that over 600 IDPs had found jobs in the city, over 500 IDP children were now attending local schools and 120 attended kindergartens.

The situation in Kherson, Odessa and Lviv was calm.

Five IDPs from Donbas and Crimea, living currently in Chernivtsi, described to the SMM their problem with receiving pensions and disability benefits in their new location. The IDPs were informed, they said, that the process of receiving the above-mentioned social benefits could take between four and six months to receive, apparently due to a verification process.

The director of the Carpathian National Natural Park, the biggest and oldest in Ukraine, told the SMM in Ivano-Frankivsk that the number of visitors had increased within the first six months of this year by almost 20% compared to last year. The management of the park connected this trend with the decline in the attractiveness of Crimea as a destination for holidays. The director said that current instability in Ukraine was not conducive to attracting foreign investment to Ukraine, and this state of affairs affected also the development perspective of the park’s infrastructure.

The situation in Kyiv was calm.