Ukraine crisis: Sepratists offer to exchange OSCE captives for prisoners
PM Yatseniuk says Russia has been repeatedly entering airspace to provoke reaction
A
bride passes by a masked pro-Russia activist near a barricade outside a
regional government building in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine.
Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine
have offered to release eight captive international observers in a
prisoner exchange, as Western governments prepared new sanctions against
Moscow.
The government in Kiev blamed Russia for what it called the
kidnapping of the monitors from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The separatists said they suspected the
observers of spying; Ukraine said they were being used as human
shields.
The Group of Seven major economies announced earlier that
they had agreed to impose more sanctions on Russia, which they believe
is bent on destabilising its former Soviet neighbour and possibly
grabbing more territory.
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Full coverage of the Ukraine crisis
Diplomats said the United States and the European Union were
expected to unveil new punitive action against Russian individuals from
Monday.
Russia denies orchestrating a campaign by pro-Moscow
militants who have seized control of public buildings across eastern
Ukraine. It accuses the Kiev government of whipping up tensions by
sending troops to root out the separatists.
The OSCE sent more monitors today to seek the release of
those detained in Slaviansk, a city under the separatists’ control.
Those being held are from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and the Czech
Republic.
Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, de facto mayor of Slaviansk, told
reporters: “They were soldiers on our territory without our permission,
of course they are prisoners.”
He said the separatists were ready to exchange the captured
monitors for fellow rebels now in the custody of the Ukrainian
authorities. “Prisoners have always been coins to exchange during times
of war. It’s an international practice,” he said.
Ukraine’s state security service said the OSCE observers -
part of a German-led military verification mission deployed since early
March at Kiev’s request - were being held “in inhuman conditions” and
that one needed medical help.
A spokeswoman for the Vienna-based organisation, of which
Russia is a member, said the OSCE had been in contact with “all sides”
since late last night but had had no direct contact with the observers.
The Russian foreign ministry said it was working to resolve
the crisis, but blamed Kiev for failing to ensure the OSCE mission’s
safety in “areas where the authorities do not control the situation and
where a military operation against residents of their own country has
been unleashed”.
Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper released a video
interview with a man it identified as Ivan Strelkov, a militia leader in
Slaviansk, accused by Ukraine’s security services of being an employee
of Russian intelligence.
He suggested the monitors might have been using their
diplomatic status “to carry out reconnaissance of the resistance
positions, for the benefit of the Ukrainian army”. It is standard
practice for serving military officers to be seconded to OSCE missions.
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