"The safety and freedom of movement of observers should be guaranteed," - said in a statement of the OSCE Chairman.- Without that, they will not be able to fulfill their mandate - to objectively observe and report on what is happening, and to facilitate dialogue between the parties in this crisis".
On 26 November, monitors of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, which is staffed by civilians from over 40 OSCE participating States, were fired at with a rocket-propelled grenade and multiple anti-aircraft rounds when travelling between two Ukrainian military checkpoints around 50 km northeast of Donetsk. Luckily there were no injuries or damage sustained in the attack and the monitors returned safely to their base.