Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 26 October 2014
This report is for media and the general public.
The situation remained calm on Election Day throughout most of Ukraine, including around Shchastya in the Luhansk region, where a local truce seems to have been arranged, and in Donetsk city. A number of frontline villages to the south of Donetsk city were, however, subjected to shelling.
The SMM noted that Kharkiv city remained calm on Election Day, with an SBU (State Security Services) point-of-contact providing a similar assessment to the SMM at 16:30hrs.
On 26 October the SMM was stopped by three Ukrainian soldiers just outside the village of Krasnohorivka (29km west of Donetsk city). The soldiers insisted the SMM wait for an escort before being allowed into the village. Fifteen minutes later two Ukrainian and one Russian officer – members of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) based in Krasnohorivka – arrived in a truck marked “Observer Mission”. They insisted on escorting the SMM into and out of the village. They promised to raise the issue of restrictions of the SMM freedom of movement with their superior in Debaltseve (76km north-east of Donetsk city) so as to avoid a repetition of the incident. The SMM experienced similar difficulties in the same location on 10 October.
On 25 October, at the JCCC HQ in Debaltseve, the SMM observed a Russian lieutenant general telling members of the “Luhansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”) and the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) not to engage in military action on election day, and, in particular, not to target polling stations. Ukrainian military officers attached to the JCCC were present.
On 25 October a Ukrainian military commander in Hranitne (90km south-east of Donetsk city) and several residents told the SMM that the town had been shelled six times the previous evening. The SMM observed damage consistent with shelling on the roof and windows of a local school in the centre of the town, which, according to the mayor during an earlier visit, was until recently used as a Ukrainian army barracks. The SMM also noted two recent impacts – caused by what appeared to have been mortar rounds – on the western outskirts of the town. The impacts suggested that the rounds had been fired from “DPR” – controlled territory to the east of the town. Local people told the SMM that the electricity supply – only just recently restored – had been cut as a result of recent shelling.
In the neighbouring town of Andriiivka (85km south-east of Donetsk city) – also under government control – the SMM at 13:42hrs heard more than 20 artillery shells being fired towards Hranitne and one towards Andriiivka.
On 25 October the SMM observed several houses in Fashchivka (84km south-west of Luhansk city) that had apparently sustained damage from recent shelling. Armed personnel at a checkpoint (CP) controlled by the “LPR”, and local people, told the SMM that the village was being shelled on a daily basis.
On 26 October in Severodonetsk (90km north-west of Luhansk city), the governor of the Luhansk region told the SMM that he had arranged with the “LPR” to have technicians enter Stanytsia Luhanska (25km north-west of Luhansk city) so that they could safely restore electricity and water supplies as shelling is underway and some of the infrastructure is in ‘LPR’-controlled territory. He said he hoped other humanitarian issues could be similarly dealt with on a more systematic basis. He added that 200,000 people cross back and forth between “LPR”-controlled territory and government-controlled territory every day in order to withdraw cash from banks and buy provisions.
On 25 October a Ukrainian military commander in Shchastya (24km north of Luhansk city) told the SMM that he had agreed with the “LPR” the previous day on a local truce in order to repair power lines there and in Stanytsia Luhanska, both under government control.
On 25 October the deputy head of the municipality in Stanytsia Luhanska told the SMM that a third of all houses in the town had been damaged to some extent in recent fighting. The SMM observed a number of buildings completely demolished and others with damage of varying degrees. He also said a third of the town’s 15,000 residents had fled, with just 100 pupils still attending class, compared to 600 before the conflict. He corroborated the information that a local truce was now in place.
On 25 October in Luhansk city the “LPR president” told the SMM that reconstruction was underway in the city, and that pensions and other welfare payments were being paid. He said funding for this came from “private donations from local donors and investors”, adding that “tax” collection needed to be reformed and implemented. The SMM was unable to corroborate the information with residents of the city.
On 25 October the head of a laboratory in Zaporizhzhia (85km south of Dnipropetrovsk city) told the SMM that the laboratory – having analysed 431 DNA samples from bodies and fragments – had been able to identify the remains of 371 Ukrainian soldiers killed in fighting in Donbas.
The situation remained calm in Kherson, Odesa, Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk.
On 26 October the SMM attended a press conference in Lviv organised by the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, the Crimean NGO Wave and the Lviv Regional Administration for State Registered Voters, at which the participants stated that just over 1,000 out of 3,000 eligible IDPs in the region had registered to vote. The participants explained that IDPs – even those not registered as IDPs in the Lviv region – needed only to produce ID proving they were from the Donetsk, Luhansk or Crimea regions in order to register to vote.
On 26 October the SMM noted a sign at the reception desk of a hotel in Sokilnyky (10km south-west of Lviv), which stated that citizens of the Russian Federation could neither stay at the hotel nor eat in its restaurant.
On 24 October the SMM noted four middle-aged women outside a military barracks in Lviv, drawing attention to the plight of their sons, whom, they said, were amongst a group of 26 Ukrainian soldiers surrounded and cut off by “LPR”-affiliated armed forces at a CP near Smile (40km north-west of Luhansk city) for the past 10 days. They said that the soldiers had run out of food and water, and had no winter clothing. An officer from the barracks told the women that appropriate measures would be taken.
The situation remained calm in Kyiv.