On Monday, October 18, Ukraine’s delegate to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Donbas Settlement, Serhiy Harmash reported that in Horlivka, the town in the area beyond Ukrainian government control, members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission are being held in a hotel against their will.
"In Horlivka, members of the OSCE Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) were actually taken hostage," Harmash wrote.
Referring to Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) report, he wrote: “At 17:00, two men (in their thirties) in civilian clothing entered the hotel and informed SMM staff that they were allowed to move freely throughout the hotel and the parking lot behind the hotel, but that they were not allowed to leave the hotel premises until the member of the armed formations reportedly detained by the Ukrainian Armed Forces inside the disengagement area near Zolote on 13 October had been released.”
The Ukrainian side said that Russian armed groups have started taking hostages, and the detention of international observers is evidence of international terrorism.
Kyiv called on the international community, primarily the leadership of the Normandy format member states, to assess the actions of the Russian side.
The Ukrainian delegation considers such actions as a consistent and conscious policy aimed at displacing the OSCE from the occupied territories, which is a gross violation and undermining of the security system in Europe using international terrorism methods.
"We emphasize once again that we consider the activities of the OSCE SMM as the basis for unbiased monitoring of the situation in the area of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and we pay tribute to the Mission as aт international force that promotes dialogue between parties of the conflict - Ukraine and the Russian Federation," the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG said.