Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine based on information received until 25 June 2014, 18:00 (Kyiv time)

Tensions remained in parts of Donbas. The situation was calm elsewhere across the country. Several railway tracks in Donbas have been damaged by unknown perpetrators. Four SMM monitors from the Donetsk team have been missing for 31 days and four SMM monitors from the Luhansk team for 28 days. The Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus called for their release.

In Kharkiv the SMM spoke to several participants of a small rally, which was held in the evening of 23 June, in the centre of Kharkiv by a dozen supporters of Ukraine’s unity. At the same place, another small group had demanded Ukraine’s transformation into a federal state. The SMM has been informed of verbal confrontations between the two groups, which ended peacefully.

The situation in parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions was tense and did not change compared to the previous reporting period.

The SMM met with a prominent representative of Donetsk City Police, who stated that the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR) had requested the city police to swear an oath of allegiance to the DPR. He added that many police officers are leaving the service because of low salaries.

According to an official statement by Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways), on 24 and 25 June unknown perpetrators damaged railway tracks at seven different locations in the Donetsk region. The damage was repaired by 25 June. Additionally, three railway bridges in Donbas and one in the Zaporizhzhia region were recently damaged by unknown perpetrators, according to a statement from Ukrzaliznytsia.

The situation in Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson and Odessa was calm.

In Kherson, the SMM met with the acting secretary of the Kherson eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), who informed the SMM that all three eparchies in Crimea remained part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The head of road police, the chief of the railway stations and an officer of the Ukrainian border guard in Kotovsk (184 kilometres north of Odessa) described the situation in the border district neighbouring the Trandniestrian region of Moldova as calm. The SMM also visited a railway border crossing point in Slobidka (27 kilometres from Kotovsk) on the Transdniestrian segment of the Ukrainian-Moldovan border. The situation at this crossing was described by local border guards and members of the EU Border Assistance Mission as calm.

The situation in Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv was calm.

On 25 June the SMM monitored a peaceful demonstration in front of Lviv Town Hall. Approximately forty parents accompanied by approximately twenty children protested against the system of how nursery school places are distributed.

The SMM observed a public meeting organized by the Lviv Regional Council on issues related to military service. All questions raised during the meeting tackled the provision of necessary equipment and ammunition to soldiers.

The situation in Kyiv was calm. The SMM met with prominent representatives of the Crimean Tatar community. They said that there is a discussion about establishing a local Mejlis (an executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatar community) in Kherson, for the Crimean Tatars who live in this region.

http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/120316