Second group of OSCE observers is released in south east Ukraine

The second and last group of the OSCE observers, including a citizen of the Russian Federation, S. Sidorov, were released in the southwest of Ukraine on 28 June 2014.

The Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes that their release was largely a result of the personal appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia who appointed Metropolitan Merkury of Rostov and Novocherkassk as the Russian Orthodox Church’s contact person on all matters concerning the release.

Representatives of the international organization were released without any precondition.

On June 25, His Holiness addressed ‘all those on whom it depends’ with an appeal to help release the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s observers detained in south east Ukraine. And expressed is conviction that the release of these persons will become another manifestation of good will and desire to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.

The first group of the OSCE observers, including citizens of Switzerland, Estonia and Turkey, and a subject of Denmark, were released on 27 June 2014.

The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, noted the importance of the appeal of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. In his interview to the ‘News on Saturday’ programme he underscored that the release came through in response to appeals of Patriarch Kirill and of the Russian authorities in follow-up of the recent meetings with Didier Burkhalter, President of Switzerland and OSCE chairperson.