Ukraine

We are currently looking for Monitoring Officers for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine.

If you are German National, you may apply on the OSCE's website. We provide more information about the open call here (German only). The OSCE SMM is constantly recruiting various professionals and profiles for its team.

There are currently three peace operations with the aim of are contributing to security in Ukraine:

• OSCE SMM:

In March 2021, the OSCE again extended the mandate of the Special Monitoring Mission. Its budget was increased by eight percent, to nearly 109 million euros. This is intended to help the SMM fulfil its evolving tasks in the process of military disengagement in the de-escalation zones in eastern Ukraine – in particular through the expanded use of technology (cameras, drones) and patrol vehicles.

• OSCE OM:

Since 2014, a second and significantly smaller OSCE observer mission – the Observer Mission at the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk – has been monitoring the Russian-Ukrainian border checkpoints at Gukovo and Donetsk (in the Rostov-on-Don region; not to be mistaken for the eastern Ukrainian regional capital of the same name). The mission, with its 16 civilian observers, is deployed on Russian territory.
 

• EUAM:

Since December 2014, the EU Advisory Mission has been advising Ukraine on the reform of its civilian security sector – inter alia in relation to police, public prosecutors, courts and correctional institutions. ZIF seconds some 15 civilian experts to this mission.

The civilian observer mission to Ukraine has been in existence since March 2014. The decision was made – as were all further extensions of the mandate – at the request of the Ukrainian government and by consensus of all 57 participating states of the OSCE.

The Minsk Agreements, mediated by the OSCE and signed by Ukraine and Russia in 2014 and 2015, provided for an immediate ceasefire and a road map for resolving the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The role of the SMM was to support the implementation of the ceasefire. Since then, the mission has been observing and reporting on the security situation on the ground. The SMM also monitors compliance with OSCE obligations, human rights and basic freedoms (including the rights of minorities), otherwise known as the Human Dimension. 

The SMM has field offices throughout the country. Since the signing of the Minsk Agreements, however, the majority of the mission’s personnel have been stationed in Luhansk and Donetsk, where the contact line runs between the conflict parties. The SMM currently has around 1,300 staff, of which around 800 are international observers.

Germany contributes 13 million euros to the mission’s budget and, with around 40 experts seconded by ZIF, is one of the mission’s largest personnel contributors.