12 people released in Slovyansk arrive in Donetsk
MOSCOW/DONETSK. May 3 (Interfax) - According to the latest reports, Russian President's Special Representative and ex-ombudsman Vladimir Putin has brought 12 people, who were held captive by federalization supporters in Slovyansk, to Donetsk on Saturday.
"In all, 12 people," Lukin's representative said.
The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) representatives released and brought to Donetsk are in a physically normal condition, he said earlier.
It was reported that seven OSCE military inspectors were held as "guests" by federalization supporters. At the same time, it was reported that the Slovyansk militiamen were holding about 40 people as hostages, including three officers from the Alpha special-forces unit of the Ukrainian Security Service.
On April 25, Slovyansk self-defense forces stopped a bus carrying a group of OSCE inspectors working in Ukraine under the Vienna Document 2011 on confidence- and security-building measures, and escorted it to the town. There were eight people on the bus: four German officers, one Swede, one Pole, one Dane and one Czech. Later the Swedish military inspector, Ingvi Thomas Johansson, was released due to his suffering from diabetes.
The other seven were released by federalization supporters in Slovyansk this morning. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said they were released thanks to the efforts of Ukraine, the OSCE and Russia's representative Lukin.
"They will not be exchanged with anyone, it is a gesture of good will. And I would very much like to believe that this good-will and noble gesture will be followed by similar ones from those who are on the opposite side of the standoff, so to speak," Lukin said on the Rossia-24 television.