Kyiv.Ukraine.Ukraine Gate-October 26,2021- Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) SMM monitors in Donetsk on the morning of October 24 resumed regular patrols after the Russian occupation administration the day before lifted the blockade of the hotel where they were staying.
This is according to the daily report of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission No. 250/2021.
“The SMM observed that the gathering in front of the hotel where Mission members reside in non-government-controlled Donetsk city ended on 23 October. The SMM resumed its regular operations on 24 October,” the report said.
On October 23, the mass gathering continued outside the aforementioned hotel. For security reasons, “there continued to be no movement of the patrols in and out of its premises.”
On the afternoon of October 23, two protesters (two men in their twenties) who presented themselves as “representatives” of a larger group of protesters, informed two members of the mission that as a result of the deteriorating situation related to COVID-19 in Donetsk City All public gatherings have been suspended and the protest will continue online.”
By October 24, SMM noted “all but two large military-style tents in front of the hotel, and the mobile kitchen, as well as one ‘police’ sign car parked near the hotel’s western entrance corridor, have been removed, but not blocked.”
On October 13, soldiers of the joint forces near the town of Zoloti (part of the Luhansk region controlled by Ukrainian government forces) detained Andrey Kosiak, a resident of Alchevsk, a member of the illegal armed group “LPR” who had obtained citizenship As part of a large-scale passport campaign carried out by Russia in the occupied territories, the suspect was detained while exploring the area near abandoned defensive positions of Ukrainian forces, disguising his mission as “mining work”.
On October 15, an organized gathering outside the Park Inn hotel in occupied Donetsk where the OSCE SMM office is located prevented monitors from leaving the hotel premises, thus effectively blocking the patrol efforts. The “demonstrators” demanded the Ukrainian authorities to release Andrei Kosiak.
The European Union has stated that it will raise the issue of obstructing the work of the SMM in occupied Donetsk at meetings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna and on a bilateral basis with Russia. The current OSCE Chair Anne Lind and OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid have called for the ban on SMM to be lifted.
