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

This report is for media and the general public.

The SMM continued monitoring the implementation of the “Package of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements”. The SMM, based on its monitoring – which was restricted by third parties and by security considerations – noted that fighting continued in and around Debaltseve, and, to a lesser extent, in a number of other locations. Elsewhere – where the SMM monitored – the SMM noted no violence.

At the headquarters of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) – temporarily re-located to government-controlled Soledar (77km north of Donetsk) – the Ukrainian Major-General, the Head of the Ukrainian side to the JCCC headquarters, told the SMM that Ukrainian military personnel were conducting an orderly withdrawal from Debaltseve (55km north-east of Donetsk). He said the actual line of contact was now around the village of Luhanske, 18 kilometres northwest of Debaltseve. He added that his priority, supported by the Russian Major-General, the Representative of Russian Federation Armed Forces to the JCCC headquarters, was to establish a humanitarian corridor, and to ensure the removal of Ukrainian military casualties from the city.

Following SMM insistence on a joint JCCC patrol – to be accompanied by the SMM – to Debaltseve, the JCCC sent a jointly signed letter to the leadership of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) and the “Lugansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”) requesting the facilitation of such a patrol, in particular an assurance of safe passage. The “DPR” denied the request, whilst the “LPR” had not replied by the time the SMM left the JCCC headquarters. A similar request was made to the Ukrainian Armed Forces commander of the “Anti-Terrorist Operation”, who replied that he would facilitate such a patrol as far as Luhanske village.

JCCC headquarters logs recorded 27 alleged ceasefire violations in the 24 hours preceding 08:00hrs, 18 February, almost all of which involved the use of Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), heavy artillery or mortars. The hardest hit area was Debaltseve.

Whilst in Soledar from 08:30hrs to 13:00hrs, the SMM heard the sound of frequent distant shelling concentrated in and around Debaltseve. In “DPR”-controlled Yasynuvata (22km north-east of Donetsk), the SMM witnessed an outgoing MLRS artillery salvo – comprising 40 rounds – which passed approximately 50 metres directly above the SMM patrol vehicles.  The SMM also heard two separate instances of artillery shelling in Donetsk city. In “DPR”-controlled Horlivka (32km north-north-east of Donetsk), the SMM heard the sound of artillery approximately 20km away. In addition, the SMM recorded instances of shelling in or whilst in the government-controlled towns of Nyzhia Krynka (35km east of Donetsk), Shyrokyne (97km south of Donetsk; 22km east of Mariupol), and Lisne (54km south-west of Donetsk). It furthermore heard the sound of an outgoing surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile from the direction of the airport in government-controlled Kramatorsk (95km north of Donetsk).

At a transit centre for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in government-controlled Sloviansk (95km north of Donetsk), the SMM spoke to a number of IDPs, mostly women, who had been evacuated from Debaltseve. They were particularly worried about the fate of elderly family members left behind in Debaltseve, saying the remaining population of the city were thought to be living in basements with no food, water, or electricity, in sub-zero temperatures.

The mayor of government-controlled Pavlopil (80km south of Donetsk) told the SMM that there had been no violence in the area since the start of the ceasefire. He said, however, that bureaucratic and sometimes random procedures applied at a nearby Ukrainian military checkpoint were impacting negatively on the local population. Long delays at the checkpoint – on average four or five hours – meant delivery trucks and private buses no longer serviced the town. Local residents told the SMM that restrictions – imposed at the checkpoint – on the amount of food and fuel allowed to cross the checkpoint exacerbated the situation, resulting, they said in empty shop shelves.

On 17 and 18 February an SMM unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) conducted four operational day- and night-flights along and on either side of the contact line from Mariupol to Dokuchajevsk, 70 kilometres north of Mariupol (113km south of Donetsk), and in the security zone on either side of the contact line. On 17 February the UAV observed battle tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs), BMP Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Howitzers, an SA-8 anti-aircraft system and different military positions. The following day the UAV spotted the presence of numerous heavy weapons in the security zone, including, inter alia, battle tanks, APCs and BMPs. There was, however, only a limited presence of military personnel in defensive positions such as at checkpoints and in trenches. The UAV also recorded that a small concentration of battle tanks spotted the previous day had been re-located to an unknown destination.

In the Luhansk region, whilst stationary at locations in government-controlled Raihorodka, Bakhmutivka, Myrna Dolyna and Muratove (45km north, 47km north-west, 75km east and 48km north-west of Luhansk, respectively), the SMM recorded instances of limited shelling.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces commander at the JCCC office in government-controlled Starobilsk (84km north-west of Luhansk) told the SMM that government-controlled areas in its area of responsibility – the Luhansk region excluding an approximately 30km-wide strip roughly running parallel to the regional boundary with the Donetsk region – had sustained two attacks in the 24 hours preceding 07:00hrs, 18 February. He additionally said he was awaiting a detailed implementation plan for the Minsk Package from the JCCC headquarters in Soledar, which he said was required before the Ukrainian military could begin the withdrawal of heavy weapons.

In government-controlled Dmytrivka, Mikhailivka, Oleksiivka, and Koliadivka (50km north, 52km north, 60km north and 70km north of Luhansk, respectively) and in “LPR”-controlled Oleksandrivsk, Sabivka, Rodakove, Zymohiria and Frunze (11km west, 16km west, 27km west, 33km west and 46km west of Luhansk, respectively), the SMM noted a calm and quiet situation. Several civilian interlocutors stated that for the previous three days there had been no shelling or military movement.

The commander of the Dnipro-1 volunteer regiment told the SMM in Dnepropetrovsk that the Minsk Package was unfavourable to Ukraine, but he wanted to make it work, saying he favoured granting special status to certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in order to settle the conflict.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs regional headquarters in Odessa told the SMM that there had been a bomb explosion on the evening of 17 February in Odessa, resulting in some damage but no casualties. At the scene of the explosion – on Velyka Arnautska Street – the SMM noted some minor damage and shattered windows. Police who were securing the scene told the SMM that they were treating the incident as terrorist-related. No suspects have been identified, they said. A local Maidan activist told the SMM that his business office was in the building.

The SMM continued monitoring the situation in Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Kyiv.