Pro-Russian insurgents put detained observers on display
SLOVYANSK, UKRAINE — Eight European military observers held prisoner by pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine were marched out under armed guard on Sunday to give public assurances that they weren’t being mistreated.
Germany’s foreign minister condemned the appearance as “revolting” and a violation of the men’s dignity. Four members of the team are German.
One of the observers, a Swedish officer, was released later in the day for medical reasons.
The insurgents in Slovyansk have taken a number of people hostage, including journalists and pro-Ukraine activists, as they strengthen their control in the east of the country in defiance of the interim government in Kyiv and its western supporters. The Ukrainian government and the West have accused Russia of using covert forces to encourage the unrest in eastern Ukraine.
On Sunday, insurgents captured three Ukrainian security service officers, who were shown to Russian journalists bloodied and blindfolded with packing tape.
Also on Sunday, a crowd of several hundred pro-Russia activists stormed a television broadcasting centre in Donetsk, the regional capital of eastern Ukraine, to demand that Russian state channels be put back on the air. T he Kyiv government last month blocked the broadcasts of the Russian channels, which serve as propaganda tools for the Kremlin.
The crowd included several dozen men wearing camouflage fatigues and face masks, the standard uniform of the pro-Russia forces that have seized government buildings in at least 10 cities in eastern Ukraine.
Col. Axel Schneider from Germany, who spoke for the group of military observers detained on Friday, stressed that they were on a diplomatic mission under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and weren’t spying for NATO, as the insurgents claim.
Schneider said additional proof of this was the participation of the officer from Sweden, which is not a member of NATO.
The observers, who appea red ner vous, were in the custody of armed men wearing camouflage fatigues and black balaclavas, who escorted them into the Slovyansk city hall for the news conference and led them away afterward. Schneider, however, said they were being treated as well as possible under the circumstances.
“The mayor of this city granted us his protection and he regarded us as his guests,” Schneider told journalists.
Schneider, who was speaking before the Swede was freed, said he had no information about when they would be released and that this was a matter for diplomats of their countries. The group also includes officers from Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic.
The Swedish officer, Maj. Thomas Johansson, was freed “on humanitarian grounds as he has a mild form of diabetes,” said Stella Khorosheva, a spokeswoman for the city’s mayor.