You're reading: Interior Ministry: Terrorists seize bus carrying OSCE observers in Sloviansk

 A group of unidentified individuals seized a bus carrying OSCE observers at the entrance to Sloviansk (Donetsk region) early on April 25 and convoyed it to the town, the press office of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry has reported. "Unidentified people stopped a bus carrying 13 passengers at the entrance to Sloviansk from the side of Kramatorsk at 11:40 a.m. on April 25, 2014. Among them were seven OSCE members, five members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and the driver," the ministry said in a report on April 25.

 “The terrorists drove the bus with passengers to the territory of the SBU office in Sloviansk. The captured citizens are currently there,” reads the report.

The ministry said that negotiations with representatives of pro-Russian forces were currently underway.

“They refused to release the hostages, citing the need for them to communicate with the competent authorities of the Russian Federation,” reads the report.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said earlier on April 25 that contact had been lost with members of a military verification mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Donetsk region.

“In Donetsk region communication has been lost with members of the OSCE military verification mission, who stay in Ukraine according to the Vienna Document… According to preliminary reports, they may have been captured by terrorists,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis said at a briefing.

“If it is confirmed, then this concerns a blatant crime by terrorists contrary to the principles of the OSCE, which will be not left without a proper response from Ukraine and the international community,” Perebyinis added.