In Horlivka, militants took OSCE mission staff as hostages

In Horlivka, members of the OSCE Monitoring Mission were taken hostage.

This was stated by the representative of the Ukrainian delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group Serhii Harmash on Facebook, Rubryka reports.

"In Horlivka, members of the OSCE Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) were taken hostage," Harmash wrote.

He quoted yesterday's mission report: "At 5:00 pm, two men (30-39 years old) in civilian clothes entered the hotel and informed the SMM staff that they were allowed to move freely around the hotel and park behind it, but couldn't leave the hotel premises until the release of a member of the armed forces, who was reportedly detained by the Armed Forces of Ukraine within the disengagement area in the Zolote area on October 13."

Harmash also noted that the OSCE meant 57 states and all decisions were made by consensus.

"That is, Russia also gave its consent to the direction of the OSCE SMM to Donbas and guarantees of immunity to its members. And the fact that members of the mission are de facto held hostage by Russian-funded militants is a challenge of the Kremlin junta to all other 56 OSCE member states," said a representative of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG.

The occupation administration in Donetsk reportedly staged a "protest" in front of the hotel where OSCE SMM members live, obstructing the movement of observers.

The Mission recorded how the participants of the mass meeting set up 22 tents in front of the hotel, as well as portable toilets.

"During October 15, the participants of the meeting took turns in an organized manner; on October 16, the protest action continued," the SMM report said.

Observers said the meeting "prevented any movement of patrols to and from the premises on October 15 and 16."

In a comment to Dom TV, Tetiana Ivanova, a representative of some districts in the Donetsk region in the Trilateral Contact Group from Ukraine, said that observers from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission continued to remain in temporarily occupied Donetsk and that their work was suspended due to security issues.

At the same time, the OSCE stated that the mission continues to work in the occupied part of the Luhansk region.