On April 17, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that members of armed formations denied the mission passage at a checkpoint in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka. Olenivka is located about 23 kilometers southwest of Donetsk.
Meanwhile, one Ukrainian soldier was killed and another wounded on April 18 when they were fired upon by Russian-led forces, according to a government statement. This brings to at least 30 the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed in 2021, part of the 14,000 casualties in the war.
Regarding the OSCE mission, the international organization reported that its patrol was traveling from the Kremlin-controlled side of Donetsk Oblast to conduct a trailer exchange with a mission patrol arriving from Ukrainian-controlled areas. Trailers often carry crucial supplies across the contact line. Supplies needed for maintenance and infrastructure repairs, as well as vaccines, are already difficult to access in Russian-controlled areas. After hours of trying, the vehicles were not allowed to pass, the report says.
Since March 1, the mission has faced similar denials to cross between the sides five times: twice at the same checkpoint near Olenivka and three times at a checkpoint near Oleksandrivka.
Michael Bociurkiw, the former spokesman for the OSCE’s SMM to Ukraine, says that while there have been delays and blockages in the past, he has never observed this level of blockage. “The timing seems quite ominous,” he said.
An increasing refusal to let monitors pass between checkpoints comes as Russia has expanded its military presence near the country’s border and in Ukraine’s territories illegally occupied by Russia.
Since mid-March, Russia has amassed more than 80,000 Russian soldiers within easy striking distance of Ukrainian positions. It is Russia’s largest military buildup since its initial military invasion in 2014, when it illegally seized Crimea and instigated uprisings in different parts of Ukraine.
The Russian buildup violates the Vienna Document which obliges OSCE member states, including Russia, to provide information on their troops’ movements.
The report also notes that “such denials at checkpoints of the armed formations not only restrict the SMM’s freedom of movement across the contact line but also prevent the SMM’s logistical operations, which are essential for the implementation of its tasks.”
Denying passage across the border at checkpoints is also in violation of the terms of the monitoring mission in Ukraine.
The OSCE Permanent Council Decision No. 1117 specifies that the “SMM shall have unrestricted and unconditional access to all areas to ensure effective monitoring and reporting of the security situation, as well as other mandated tasks.”
According to Bociurkiw, it is very important to the mission to allow rotations of monitors because of the pressure and stress of the operating environment in the Russian-controlled side.
“It’s very difficult, even for a few weeks, to be in Luhansk or Donetsk… the mandate of the mission is to facilitate localized cease-fires and repairs to infrastructure. If you limit the movement of those things, the mission suffers and it’s a downward spiral,” he said.
In recent months, Kremlin-friendly analysts have also floated the idea of sending Russian peacekeepers to occupied territories of eastern Ukraine, under the pretense that Ukraine has ignored the Minsk agreements. Bociurkiw says that Russia may indeed be looking to place their own so-called peacekeepers in the occupied territories, but it “would just be little green men dressed up in a friendly way. It’s straight out of Russia’s playbook where they make the West feel like nothing’s really happening”
Russia has also recently delayed approval for the extension of the mission in Ukraine, according to Bociurkiw. Missions have to be approved every few months and always with unanimous consensus of member states, including Russia.
“Whether it’s Russia or its proxies it uses to delay or block the mission, it’s serious because monitors are mandated free and unfettered movement and access. Without that the mission is useless,” Bociurkiw said.
