The de facto mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk said on Sunday mediators from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who are seeking the release of a group of detained observers have arrived in the city.
Members of the 'Donbass volunteer battalion' say they founded the force to defend their region against pro-Russian separatists. They say they are privately funded and could use more money and guns. (Nahlah Ayed/CBC)
The self-proclaimed mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, told reporters he was heading into talks with the mediators.
One of the international observers detained by pro-Russian separatists in Slovyansk said on Sunday that all in the group were in good health, but added they have been given no indication when they might go free.
At a news conference organized by the separatists, a German member of the observer mission, Col. Axel Schneider, told reporters he had "not been touched," and that there had been no physical mistreatment of the group.
"All the European officers are in good health and no one is sick," he said. "We have no indication when we will be sent home to our countries."
Ponomaryov has accused the monitors of being NATO spies.
As the observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe spent their third day in custody, there were reports pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine captured three Ukrainian security service officers on Sunday.
Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's flashpoint town of Slavyansk presented on April 27 the eight detained European members of an international OSCE military observer mission to a news conference. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)
The officers were shown to journalists bloodied and blindfolded with packing tape. Stripped of their trousers and shoes, the captive officers sat with heads bowed in the security service headquarters in Slovyansk early Sunday.
Ukraine's Security Service confirmed that its officers had been seized by armed men. The officers were on a mission to detain a Russian citizen suspected in the killing of a Ukrainian parliament member, the agency said in a statement.
Igor Strelkov, who has been identified as the commander of the armed insurgents, said the three Ukrainian officers were on a mission to seize leaders of the pro-Russia force when they were captured.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Moscow to do all it can to bring about the release of the European observers. In a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart on Friday he also expressed concerns of provocative Russian troop movements close to the border.
Other western diplomats have urged Moscow to do more to free the 13 men who are being held after the bus they were travelling in was seized on Friday.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine must end military operations in the east of the country as part of measures to defuse the crisis. But Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said it was up to Moscow to solve the crisis.
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