You're reading: Militia-captured OSCE monitors allegedly taken to Luhansk region

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors taken prisoner by unlawful armed groups in Donetsk region have been moved to Severodonetsk in the neighboring region of Luhansk, according to one of the leaders of the "Donetsk People's Republic."

 “As far as I know, the detained OSCE groups are in Severodonetsk,” Andriy Purhin, the first deputy prime minister of the unilaterally proclaimed republic, told Interfax-Ukraine on June 7.

The presence of the OSCE monitors in Severodonetsk “is a guarantee that there will be no hostilities in the city,” he said. The city is the site of a large chemical plant and bombing the latter may spark an environmental disaster for Luhansk and neighboring regions, Purhin said.

He also said about 150 foreign mercenaries were currently fighting government forces near Kramatorsk. “There’s a lot of foreigners there – mercenaries from various countries, soldiers of fortune, as it were. They are well-equipped and travel on Hummers,” he said.

He claimed the alleged mercenaries were not even making any attempt to keep their foreign identity secret from the local population. “It’s sometimes been getting to the point there they tried to play soccer in children’s playgrounds in the city, they weren’t afraid of anyone,” he said.

Purhin said he could not exclude the possibility of some of the alleged mercenaries moving to the vicinity of Severodonetsk.