Ukraine Separatists Parade Seized Observers
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A group of eight European military observers being held prisoner by pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine appeared in public for the first time since their capture and gave assurances that they were not being mistreated.
Seven officers from the observer team and their translator were brought into a room of waiting journalists in the separatist-held administration building in the city of Slovyansk on Sunday.
Guards in camouflage fatigues and balaclavas, carrying Kalashnikov rifles, were also in the room as journalists spoke to the observers, Al Jazeera reported.
Colonel Axel Schneider from Germany, who appeared nervous as he spoke for the group, stressed they were on a diplomatic mission under the auspices of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) when they were detained on Friday and were not spying for NATO as the separatists claim.
Schneider said he understood that the self-proclaimed city mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, could use the observers as a bargaining chip.
Later, one of the men, a Swedish national, was released by the group on medical grounds.
"He has a mild form of diabetes and so we decided to let him go," Stella Korosheva, a spokeswoman for the separatist mayor told reporters.
Ponomaryov said on Saturday that they could be released in exchange for jailed pro-Russia activists and told reporters that he was heading into talks with the mediators.
"In our town, where a war situation is going on, any military personnel who don't have our permission are considered prisoners of war," he told reporters.
Ponomaryov said he was preparing to meet OSCE mediators to negotiate the terms of the group's release.
"The mayor of this city granted us his protection and he regarded us as his guests," Schneider told journalists in Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine.
"We were accommodated in a cellar. We had to set up conditions for ourselves," said Schneider, describing what happened after they were seized. "Since yesterday we've been in a more comfortable room with heating. We have daylight, and an air conditioner."
"I can tell you that the word of the mayor is a word of honour. We have not been touched."
Schneider told reporters that none of the European delegation were sick.