{"id":51245,"date":"2025-07-31T00:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/concerns-grow-for-3-osce-workers-jailed-since-shortly-after-russias-invasion-of-ukraine\/31\/07\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T00:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:30:07","slug":"concerns-grow-for-3-osce-workers-jailed-since-shortly-after-russias-invasion-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/concerns-grow-for-3-osce-workers-jailed-since-shortly-after-russias-invasion-of-ukraine\/31\/07\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns grow for 3 OSCE workers jailed since shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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VIENNA (AP) \u2014 It was late at night when they came for Dmytro Shabanov, a security assistant in eastern Ukraine at the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.<\/p>\n

His seizure from his home in the Luhansk region in April 2022 \u2014 weeks after Moscow’s full-scale invasion<\/a> \u2014 was part of a coordinated operation by pro-Russian forces who detained him and two other Ukrainian OSCE workers. Maksym Petrov, an interpreter, also was seized in the Luhansk region, while Vadym Golda, another security assistant, was detained in neighboring Donetsk.<\/p>\n

More than three years later, the three Ukrainian civilians who had worked with the international group\u2019s ceasefire monitoring efforts in the eastern regions remain behind bars. They have not been part of recent large-scale prisoner exchanges<\/a> with Russia.<\/p>\n

Their detention has raised alarm among OSCE officials, Western nations and human rights advocates, who demand their immediate release while expressing concern about their health and prison conditions<\/a> amid allegations of torture.<\/p>\n

The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian mission to the OSCE did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on those allegations or on OSCE personnel having immunity from prosecution as international civil servants.<\/p>\n

Rapidly unfolding events in 2022<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was taken from his home after the curfew took effect,\u201d said Margaryta Shabanova, Shabanov\u2019s wife, who lives in Kyiv. \u201cI had a last call with him around 20 minutes before it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his arrest, Shabanov disappeared for three months, held incommunicado by Russian separatists and interrogated in a Luhansk prison until he was forced to sign a confession.<\/p>\n

That fateful night turned Shabanova\u2019s life upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery morning, I wake up hoping that today will be different — that today I will hear that my Dima is free,\u201d she said. \u201cPainfully, days stretch on, and nothing changes. The waiting, the not knowing, the endless hope slowly turning into quiet despair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighting back tears, Shabanova describes life without her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe silence at the dinner table, the birthdays and holidays have been missed for over three years. People say to me that I am strong, but they don\u2019t see the moments I collapse behind closed doors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Vienna-based OSCE<\/a> monitors ceasefires, observes elections, and promotes democracy and arms control, and Shabanov \u201creally liked his job\u201d at the international organization, said his wife, especially working with the foreign staff. She said her husband believed that \u201cinternational service could protect lives and make the world a little more just.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OSCE had operated a ceasefire monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists had been fighting Ukrainian government troops since 2014, with about 14,000 killed even before the full-scale invasion. The monitors watched for truce violations, facilitated dialogue and brokered local halts in fighting to enable repairs to critical civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n

But on March 31, 2022, Russia blocked the extension of the OSCE mission, and separatist leaders declared it illegal the following month.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether the three detained OSCE staffers had tried to flee eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Locally recruited Ukrainians like Shabanov, Petrov and Golda worked in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to help shut down the OSCE mission. They cleared offices, safeguarded OSCE assets, including armored vehicles, drones and cameras, and oversaw evacuations of their international colleagues. That operation was completed by October 2022.<\/p>\n

Convictions and prison sentences<\/p>\n

The three men were arrested despite carrying documents confirming their immunity, the OSCE said.<\/p>\n

Shabanov and Petrov were convicted of treason by a Russian-controlled court in Luhansk in September 2022 and sentenced to 13 years in prison. Golda, 57, was convicted of espionage by a court in Donetsk, also under Moscow’s control, in July 2024 and sentenced to 14 years.<\/p>\n

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in November 2022 it believed the activities of the OSCE monitors \u201cwere often not only biased but also illegal.\u201d Without identifying the three Ukrainian OSCE staff by name, the ministry alleged that local residents were recruited by the West to collect information for the Ukrainian military and \u201cseveral\u201d were detained.<\/p>\n

The OSCE condemned the sentences and called for the immediate release of the three men, asserting they were performing their official duties as mandated by all of its 57 member states, including Russia.<\/p>\n

Seven months after the invasion, Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, despite not fully controlling them.<\/p>\n

On March 27, 2025, Russia transferred Shabanov from a detention facility in the Luhansk region to a high-security penal colony in Russia\u2019s Omsk region in Siberia, according to Ievgeniia Kapalkina, a lawyer with the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group who represents the Shabanov and Petrov families.<\/p>\n

Petrov remains at risk of being moved to Russia, she said.<\/p>\n

Penal colonies in Siberia are known for harsh conditions, where \u201cprisoners often lose all contact with the outside world, effectively \u2018disappearing\u2019 within Russia\u2019s penal system,\u201d the legal group said in March. “Given their existing health issues, the lack of proper medical care in remote regions could prove fatal,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Allegations of beatings, psychological pressure<\/p>\n

Ukrainian human rights activist Maksym Butkevych, who was in the same Luhansk penal colony with Shabanov and Petrov from March 2024 until being released in October 2024, said both men were tortured during interrogation.<\/p>\n

Shabanov was \u201cbeaten several times during the interrogations until he lost consciousness and was subjected to extreme psychological pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Butkevych said Shabanov, 38, has problems with his back and legs. “He had to lie down at least for couple of hours every day due to pain,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Petrov, 45, has \u201ca lot of health issues,\u201d Butkevych said, including allergies worsened by his captivity, “specifically the interrogation period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kapalkina said both men were \u201csubjected to repeated unlawful interrogations during which they suffered severe physical and physiological abuse\u201d and eventually \u201csigned confessions under coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The allegations of torture could not be independently verified by the AP.<\/p>\n

Bargaining chips for Russia?<\/p>\n

Butkevych suggested the three imprisoned OSCE workers, who are not prisoners of war, are likely \u201cbargaining chips\u201d for Moscow, to be \u201cexchanged for someone or something significantly important for Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, the current chairperson of the OSCE, said in a statement to AP that imprisoning civilian officials of an international organization “is completely unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

“Securing their release is a top priority for the Finnish OSCE Chairpersonship,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

OSCE Secretary General Feridun H. Sinirlio\u011flu is \u201cvery closely and personally engaged on this matter,\u201d a spokesperson said, noting he traveled to Moscow in March and raised the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.<\/p>\n

Yurii Vitrenko, Ukraine\u2019s ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna, called for the unconditional release of the three, saying they should \u201cnever have been illegally detained\u201d by Russia, should \u201cnever have been put on a fake trial,\u201d and should \u201cnever have been handed illegal sentences.”<\/p>\n

Vitrenko suggested that other states with more influence with Russia should exert more pressure to help secure their release. He did not identify those countries.<\/p>\n

Shabanova said she regularly asks \u201cthose who have the power\u201d to take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not look away,\u201d she said, adding that the OSCE and the international community must ask themselves why their actions have not led to the release of her husband.<\/p>\n

Her only wish, she said, is “to see my Dima walk through the door, just to hold his hand again, to look into his eyes and say, \u2018You are home now. It\u2019s over.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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VIENNA (AP) — It was late at night when they came for Dmytro Shabanov, a security assistant in eastern Ukraine at the