The conditions in which the OSCE observers were held by federalization supporters in Sloviansk, Ukraine's Donetsk region, were good enough, special representative of the Russian president Vladimir Lukin said.
“Clearly, the people felt a bit strained as they were detained.
Although, as I far as understood they were held in acceptable
conditions. They were not even guarded in the end, as I was told by
Viacheslav Ponomariov [the self-proclaimed people’s mayor of Sloviansk],
who is the actual head of the city,” Lukin said in an interview
published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Monday.
The presidential representative thanked Ponomariov and his colleagues
who assisted in the release of the observers. “They helped us with
transportation and their general attitude,” he added.
Self-defense forces stopped a bus carrying the inspection team
deployed in Ukraine by the OSCE consistent with the 2011 Vienna Document
on Confidence and Security-Building Measures on the outskirts of
Sloviansk on April 25 and conveyed the bus into the city. There were
eight people on the bus – four German officers, one citizen of Sweden,
one of Poland, one of Denmark and one of the Czech Republic. Later on
the Swedish military observer, Thomas Johansson, was released on
humanitarian grounds as he had diabetes.
The other seven military inspectors were freed by federalization
supporters in Sloviansk on Saturday morning. The Ukrainian Foreign
Ministry said their freedom was a result of the combined efforts of
Ukraine, the OSCE and Russia represented by Lukin.
