DONETSK, June 27. /ITAR-TASS/. The observers from the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have been freed in south-eastern Ukraine and are heading for Donetsk, a spokeswoman for the press center of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic told ITAR-TASS.
“At the moments, OSCE mission observers that had been captured earlier are going to Donetsk, they are freed,” she said. However, the spokeswoman did not specify the exact number of freed observers, adding that they “will be in Donetsk in half an hour’s time”.
The OSCE later confirmed that the observers had been freed. A spokesperson for the OSCE in Kiev said four observers from the organization’s monitoring team in Donetsk had been released.
DNR Prime Minister Alexander Borodai said the observers are now in a hotel in Donetsk. “It was done thanks to the will of good people. We freed them without any special preconditions and we hope that the international community will understand us,” Borodai explained.
He also confirmed that among the freed observers were citizens of Denmark, Turkey, Switzerland and Estonia.
The OSCE observers refused to talk to journalists.