Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 10 October 2014
Focusing on the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, the SMM continued monitoring the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, still noting that violence is continuing in a number of places.
Representatives of the Svoboda party informed the SMM that another Lenin statue had been toppled in Bogoduhiv (50km north-west of Kharkiv). Deputy Chief of Chervonozavodskoy District Police in Kharkiv informed the SMM that on 6 October the Lenin statue at Asnova had also been destroyed. The incident in Bogoduhiv would be the 11th incident of this kind having occurred in Kharkiv region since 28 September (See SMM Daily Report 8 October).
The SMM was informed by the Hirske (Luhansk region) chief of police that three “GRAD” rockets had struck the town on 5 October. The SMM observed impact sites consistent with this information. The SMM also met the Mayor of Hirske and representatives of the Women’s Council. Unlike its surroundings, Hirske has rarely been shelled and the interlocutors were concerned that schools in the city (two primary and two secondary) have not yet opened for the new school year. Hirske, which is subordinated to Pervomaisk under the control of the so-called “Lugansk People’s Republic”, is to be re-subordinated to Popasna district under the control of the Government of Ukraine. Funding for the schools and public employees will in the future start coming via Popasna. The representatives of the Women’s Council were concerned that the process of re-subordination might take time and delay the reopening of the schools and payment of salaries.
In Donetsk city the situation remained tense. The SMM visited the Azotnyi micro-district, in the vicinity of the airport, under the command of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” (8km northwest of Donetsk). The SMM observed fresh material damages to civilian housing buildings caused by shelling earlier in the day, which had also been heard by the SMM. Throughout the patrol the SMM heard an unspecified number of artillery being shot from the north, north-northwest and north-northeast consistent with two unspecified parties engaging each other.
In Mariupol the overall situation was generally calm.
In Kramatorsk and its surroundings, the situation remained volatile. The deputy commander of the Ukrainian Army Checkpoint in Maiorsk (53km south-east of Kramatorsk) informed the 2
SMM that their position had been shelled during the night. The SMM observed fresh craters on site consistent with this information.
The SMM observed a funeral service organized by the Ukrainian Army at the Opera Square in Dnipropetrovsk with approximately 200 participants where the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate conducted funeral rites for 22 soldiers recently killed in the conflict.
On 7 October, the SMM met the head of administration of Yuzhnoukrains’k (189km north-west of Kherson) which is a ‘satellite’ city of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and was informed that security measures had been strengthened recently, in connection with the conflict in the east.
The SMM attended the roundtable “Sharing the Bosnian and Georgian Peace-Building Experience in Ukraine” in Odessa where representatives of local NGOs discussed the draft National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security based on UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The action plan aims to increase the participation of women in the Ukrainian peace process and in the security sector and to address the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence in all phases of the conflict cycle.
In Chernivtsi the situation remained calm.
The SMM met the deputy governor of Ivano-Frankivsk to discuss the commission dealing with the Ukrainian army’s ‘5th Territorial Defence Battalion’. The commission was established early September by the Regional Council to provide legal assistance to military staff and their families. The SMM was informed that the commander of the 5th Battalion, detained for retreating from a position (see SMM Daily Report 6 September) was released on bail, which was financed through donations, and he is now at a military training site in Rivne. The investigations by military authorities continue.
The SMM in Lviv monitored an action of the NGO “Economic Boycott” whose activists purchased items from two stores on Galitska Square and “Svoboda Prospect”. In one of the shops they identified and purchased items produced in the Russian Federation, which did not carry the marking labels stating that they had been produced in the Russian Federation, as per the administrative decree. The manager committed to comply within a week.
On 10 October, the Lviv Regional Prosecutor announced on its official website that a fraud investigation had found that two individuals knowingly supplied fake flak jackets to 150 soldiers assigned to the east. One suspect is being held in detention and the other was released pending trial.
On 9 October the SMM met the deputy police chief of Kyiv region who suggested that the current economic and employment situation created an environment conducive to increased criminality. He also informed the SMM that false bomb threats in Borispol International Airport happened almost on a daily basis, with most threats being made by telephone and originating from the east. The police are co-operating with the airport protection service. The police are also making preparations to ensure public peace and order during the upcoming parliamentary elections.