Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 28 November 2014
The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum. The SMM monitored the first hearing of a case concerning 15 people accused of participating in the clashes in Odesa on 2 May.
The situation in Kharkiv was calm.
The SMM met the head of the village council of government-controlled Beleovodsk (90 km north of Luhansk) who said that approximately 1,500 of the district’s roughly 8,200 residents are internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are being mainly accommodated in private residences and supported by the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. The SMM also met the head of the district branch of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society who said that the standard of living within the district is below the poverty level and that some 4,000 IDPs are lacking food and warm clothes for the winter.
In Donetsk city, the SMM visited State Clinic No. 23, which is located in an area affected by shelling on 27 November. The SMM observed extensive damage to the roof of the clinic and noted that almost all the windows had been shattered. Two craters consistent with direct rocket impacts were visible. The first one was five metres east of the clinic’s wall while the second one was approximately 40 metres west of the nearby secondary school No. 46. The principal of the school informed the SMM that the school was not functioning due to security reasons. The head of the clinic informed the SMM that there was one injured civilian who had been evacuated to the Donetskaya Territorial Hospital. At Sayanskaya Street 40 and Buturlinovskaya Street 55, the SMM interacted with a group of residents who said that three civilians including a seven-year-old boy had died as a result of the shelling on 27 November. The SMM proceeded to the hospital where the staff confirmed that they had admitted a woman with injuries to the upper chest.
The SMM patrolled the frontline areas of Chermalyk (72 km south of Donetsk) and Orlivske (80 km south of Donetsk), in the vicinity of Mariupol. In Chermalyk the SMM met the mayor, a school director, cultural centre director and were informed that the school had resumed operations after being closed for two months. In Orlivske, the SMM spoke to several villagers who expressed concerns over their lack of access to water. As the nearby Ukrainian checkpoint does not allow the Chermalyk-Mariupol bus to access the village, children do not have regular access to public transport to their school in Pavlopil, which is located in the area of the frontline.
The SMM monitored a press conference in Mariupol where the mayor announced a tentative plan to create an unarmed voluntary paramilitary unit to support security efforts in the city. He did not provide a timeline for its creation.
On 27 November, the SMM met the Director of the Mariupol office of the State Penitentiary Service (SPS), which is responsible for Donetsk region. The director gave an update on the entry into force of Decree No. 595, which terminated all funding for the 13 detention facilities within the region that are located in areas not controlled by the Government. Plans are underway to transfer approximately 8,000 inmates to alternative penitentiaries in government-controlled territory. The 3,000 SPS personnel have been given the option to relocate to government-controlled territory and continue their employment or be dismissed.
The situation in Dnipropetrovsk was calm.
On 27 November the SMM met the director of Skadovsk (99 km south-east of Kherson) seaport who said that the port, which celebrated its 120th anniversary this year, plays an important role as the closest port to the Crimean peninsula. The port is no longer functional since the departure of its Russian operating company in February, but most of the infrastructure is still in place, the seafloor has been dredged and works to the piers are ongoing with the objective of resuming the port’s activities.
The SMM monitored a rally of some 30 self-defence male activists at the southern regional Customs Office in Odessa. The activists, dressed in camouflage and wearing balaclavas, blocked the entrance gate with a BRDM (Boyevaya Razvedyvatelnaya Dozornaya Mashina – Combat Reconnaissance Patrol Vehicle) Armoured Personnel Carrier decorated with Ukrainian and Right Sector flags and demanded lustration in the customs service. The activists and the customs director agreed to meet once the activists have compiled a list of demands. The event was monitored by the police and ended peacefully.
The SMM monitored the first hearing of a case concerning 15 people accused of participating in the clashes in Odessa on 2 May (see SMM Daily Reports of 4 May and 5 May). At 12:00 hrs the SMM observed 60-70 people in the courtroom, mostly friends and family of the accused and some activists, predominantly women, from Kulikovo Pole (a large square in central Odesa, which was the focus of the protests in the city). During the adjournment at approximately 13:20 hrs, the SMM observed some 15 young male Euromaidan activists in camouflage with skeleton masks outside the courthouse. The judges extended custody of the 15 accused by 60 days after which the accused claimed that their rights had been violated and began a standoff with the authorities in the courtroom. The head of the Orthodox Cossacks mediated between the parties and an agreement was reached whereby the accused would file a collective petition. The activists then dispersed by 17:30 hrs. Some 10 to 15 police officers monitored the process, which ended peacefully.
The SMM met the head of the Chernivtsi-based NGO Institute of Political and Geopolitical Research (IPGR) who, at a conference organized by the Chernivtsi National University on 21 November, had signed a co-operation agreement with the Moscow-based Institute of Contemporary Research in Humanities (ICRH). The agreement envisages joint publications. According to the interlocutor, conference participants from Russia were warmly received.
In Ivano-Frankivsk the SMM monitored a roundtable discussion organized by the NGO the Ukrainian Volunteer Group of Artemivsk (Donbas) with the support of IDPs residing in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The event was attended by 40 participants, mostly women, and aimed to build relations between eastern and western Ukrainian residents in general and between the cities of Donetsk and Ivano- Frankivsk.
The Lviv city police informed the SMM that they received a bomb threat at 10:25 hrs in the Frankivsky district administration building located on 85 Chuprynky Street. Following a search by the police no bomb was found.
On 27 November the SMM observed an address to the students of the Lviv Catholic University by popular singer Ruslana, who was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004. She called for their participation in the forthcoming campaign “Night of Memory”, which is planned to take place in Kyiv on 29-30 November. The campaign is designed to revive the spirit of the Maidan protest movement and lead to further discussions on the future of Ukraine.
The SMM monitored the IDP registration process for financial assistance in the Shevchenkivske and Podilske regional directorates of the Kyiv City Department of Social Policy. At the first location the SMM observed that there were considerable delays in processing the forms.
In Kyiv the SMM met a Member of Parliament and Head of the Lustration Committee who said that the lustration process was positively perceived by 70 per cent of the population and that the estimated number of civil servants across Ukraine falling under lustration was approximately one million. He further stated that the process would last at least four years and that it was most difficult to implement it in the justice sector.