The European Union has delivered 20 armored vehicles for the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE SMM) in Ukraine.

All these vehicles will be sent to eastern Ukraine and provide significant help to the OSCE SMM both from the viewpoint of the monitors' safety and in their monitoring of the implementation of the Minsk agreements in terms of the ceasefire and heavy weaponry removal in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, SMM chief Ertugrul Apakan said at the vehicles handover ceremony in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The SMM was receiving non-financial aid from the OSCE members and partners, in particular, from the governments of Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia, Apakan said.

Today, the SMM numbers 686 monitors and has 188 vehicles, he said.

The SMM conducts between 60 and 90 patrols daily, he said. Each patrol involves two vehicles, three to six monitors and two translators.

The SMM also uses armored vehicles for other purposes, for example to evacuate the injured, he said.

Apakan has also not ruled out nighttime patrols in the event that the security situation improves.