DONETSK, Ukraine - The four members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Special Monitoring Mission abducted on May 29 in Severdonetsk, Luhansk Oblast were set free by their separatist captors late on June 28 after one month in detention.
The OSCE group was transported in a van escorted by separatist gunmen from Severdonetsk to the Park Inn hotel in Donetsk, arriving just after dusk.
An OSCE statement said the Special Monitoring Mission’s head office in Kyiv was informed of the group’s release earlier on June 28. After arriving in Donetsk the newly freed monitors were observed to be in good condition, OSCE representatives said.
The team of four includes nationals from Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.
“It is with great relief and happiness that we greet news of the release of our colleagues after a month in captivity. Their families, friends and colleagues are waiting for them. We appreciate the efforts undertaken by all the parties towards their release,” the OSCE quoted chief monitor Ertugrul Apakan as saying.
The development comes after the release of four OSCE monitors from the organization’s Donetsk team on June 26. On June 27, members of that team arrived safely in Vienna aboard an aircraft chartered by Switzerland and then flew to their home countries, the OSCE said.
“A total of eight [monitors] were detained and we have released eight,” Aleksander Borodai, the self-proclaimed prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic, said outside the Donetsk hotel.
The eight observers were sent to Ukraine more than a month ago as part of team of 100 to monitor the Geneva agreement aimed at de-escalating the conflict that has engulfed the country since April. The violence has led to the deaths of more than 400 people, including many civilians, and displaced tens of thousands.
In Brussels on June 27, the EU demanded that Russia use its influence with separatists to negotiate the release of the monitors to prove it was working to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine.
The OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine currently consists of 300 civilian unarmed monitors from more than 40 OSCE participating States and local staff from Ukraine, according to the organization. They operate in Kyiv, Kherson, Odessa, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernivtsi and Luhansk regions.
Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.
