Detained European military observers say they are ‘OK’
28 April 2014 5:58 AM IST
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 Kiev and its Western supporters. On Sunday, they 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 the television broadcasting center in Donetsk, the regional capital of eastern Ukraine, to demand that Russian state channels be put back on the air. The Kiev 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 of Security and Cooperation in Europe and weren’t spying for NATO, as the insurgents claim. The observers, who appeared nervous, 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 in Slovyansk, which has become the center of the pro-Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine. ‘I can tell you that the word of the mayor is a word of honor. We have not been
touched.’
Also on Sunday, a crowd of several hundred pro-Russia activists stormed the television broadcasting center in Donetsk, the regional capital of eastern Ukraine, to demand that Russian state channels be put back on the air. The Kiev 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 of Security and Cooperation in Europe and weren’t spying for NATO, as the insurgents claim. The observers, who appeared nervous, 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 in Slovyansk, which has become the center of the pro-Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine. ‘I can tell you that the word of the mayor is a word of honor. We have not been
touched.’
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