Russian-sponsored militants have trapped two members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a hotel in the occupied town of Horlivka, Trilateral Contact Group representative Sergiy Garmash reported on Oct 18.
Earlier, on Oct. 17, about 200 pro-Russian protesters gathered outside Park Inn hotel in the occupied city of Donetsk, where OSCE representatives in the region are headquartered and blocked the entrance.
In both cases, the pro-Russian people demanded the release of militant Andrey Kosyak, who was detained by Ukrainian forces on Wednesday.
The OSCE on Oct. 17 halted its monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine as a result of the Donetsk protest.
“Because of our safety concerns and because of our safety rules and considerations we suspended our operations,” said Yaşar Halit Çevik, Chief Monitor of the OSCE to Ukraine.
The Trilateral Contact Group said that Kosyak and other armed men were caught scouting Ukrainian positions while wearing the insignia of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination, a special group implementing the Minsk peace agreements. The men claimed they were involved in demining operations.
Kosyak is a Russian citizen, who had been suspected of murder in 2010.
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine is an unarmed civilian mission that began its work in Ukraine in March 2014, after Russian-sponsored forces invaded Ukraine. Its main tasks are to monitor and report on the situation in Ukraine, as well as to promote dialogue between all parties to the conflict.
“The OSCE is 57 countries that makes all decisions by consensus, meaning Russia has granted permission and immunity to the OSCE to be in Donbas,” Garmash wrote on Facebook, in reference to the detention in Horlivka.
“The fact that members of the mission are being held hostage by militants financed and controlled by Russia is the Kremlin junta issuing a challenge to all the other 56 OSCE member states.”
