Concerns among 3 OSCE workers will increase shortly since Russia invaded Ukraine

Vienna (AP) – They were late at night on the special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In April 2022, weeks after the full-scale invasion of Moscow, he seized his home from his home in the Luhans region as part of a coordinated operation by pro-Russian forces, who detained him and two other Ukrainian OSCE workers. Interpreter Maksym Petrov also occupied the Luhansk region, while another security assistant, Vadym Golda, was detained in neighboring Donetsk.

More than three years later, three Ukrainian civilians who worked with the International Group in the eastern region were still in prison. They are not part of the massive prisoner exchanges that have been recently exchanged with Russia.

Their detention has raised alarms for OSCE officials, Western countries and human rights advocates who demand immediate release while expressing concerns about their health and prison conditions in allegations of torture.

The Russian Foreign Ministry and Russia’s mission did not respond to the Associated Press request for comment on the allegations, or avoid prosecution of international civil servants.

Events will be launched quickly in 2022

“After the curfew came into effect, he was taken away,” said Shabanov’s wife Margaryta Shabanova. “I made the last call with him about 20 minutes before it happened.”

After being arrested, Shabanov was missing for three months, detained by Russian separatists and questioned in Luhansk prison until he was forced to sign his confession.

That fateful night turned Shabanova’s life upside down.

“Every morning, I hope today will be different – today I will hear my Dima is free,” she said. “Painfully, the days continue and nothing has changed. Waiting, not knowing, the endless hope slowly turns into quiet despair.”

As she fights tears, Sabanova describes a life without a husband.

“The silence at the table, birthdays and holidays have been missing for over three years. People told me I was strong, but they couldn’t see the moment I went bankrupt,” she said.

Vienna-based OSCE monitors the ceasefire, observes elections and promotes democracy and weapons control, while Shabanov “really loves his work” in international organizations, especially with foreign staff. Her husband believes that “international services can protect lives and make the world more just.”

The OSCE has conducted a ceasefire monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine, and since 2014, pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces, and even before the full invasion, some 14,000 people were killed. The monitor watched the armistice violations, facilitated dialogue, and stopped local shutdowns in efforts to repair critical civilian infrastructure.

But on March 31, 2022, Russia blocked the extension of the OSCE mission, and separatist leaders declared it illegal next month.

It is unclear whether the three detained OSCE staff tried to flee eastern Ukraine.

Locally recruited Ukrainians like Shabanov, Petrov and Golda work in the Luhansk and Donetsk areas to help close OSCE missions. They cleaned up their offices, maintained OSCE assets, including armored vehicles, drones and cameras, and oversaw the evacuation of their international colleagues. The operation was completed in October 2022.

Conviction and imprisonment

The OSCE said the three were arrested despite carrying documents confirming their immunity.

Shabanov and Petrov were found guilty of being held in a Russian-controlled court in September 2022 and were sentenced to 13 years in prison. Golda, 57, was sentenced to espionage in July 2024 at a court in Moscow-controlled Donetsk and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in November 2022 that it believed that the activities of OSCE monitors were “often not only biased, but illegal.” The ministry did not name three Ukrainian OSCE employees, claiming that local residents were recruited by the West to collect information from Ukrainian troops and detained “several”.

The OSCE condemned the verdict and called for the immediate release of the three men, claiming they were performing their formal duties in accordance with the 57 member states, including Russia.

Seven months after the invasion, Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Hosen and Zaporizhia, although they did not have complete control.

Russia transferred Shabanov from the detention center in the Luhansk region to a high-security criminal colony in the Russian OMSK region of Siberia, according to lawyers from the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group representing the Shabanov and Petrov families.

She said Petrov still had the risk of being moved to Russia.

The legal group said in March that Siberia’s criminal colonies were known for their harsh conditions, “prisoners often lose all contact with the outside world and effectively “disappear” within Russia’s criminal system.” It added: “In view of their existing health problems, the lack of proper medical care in remote areas can be fatal.”

Beating accusations, psychological stress

Ukrainian human rights activist Maksym Butkevych started in March 2024 in the same Luhansk criminal colony with Shabanov and Petrov until his release in October 2024.

He said Shabanov was “beaten several times during the interrogation until he lost consciousness and was under great psychological pressure.”

Butkevych said Shabanov, 38, had problems with his back and legs. He added: “He had to lie down for at least a few hours a day due to the pain.”

Butkevych said Petrov, 45, had “a lot of health problems”, including worsening allergies in prison, “especially during interrogation.”

Kapalkina said both men were “under repeated illegal trials and suffered severe physical and physical abuse during this period” and eventually “signed a confession under coercion.”

The Associated Press cannot independently verify allegations of torture.

Bargain for Russia?

Butkevych suggested that three imprisoned OSCE workers who were not prisoners of war could be “bargaining chips” in “for exchange for an exchange for someone or something crucial to Russia.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, the current OSCE president Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said in a statement to the Associated Press that the imprisonment of civilian officials in international organizations is “completely unacceptable.”

“Ensure to release is a top priority for Finnish OSCE hosts,” she said.

Ohio Secretary General Feridun H. Simmiolly, Feridun H., said a spokesman.

Yurii Vitrenko, Ukrainian ambassador to Vienna, called for the unconditional release of the three groups, saying they should “never be illegally detained by Russia” if “never be subject to false trials” and “never be granted illegal judgments.”

Vitrenko recommends that other states with greater influence on Russia should put more pressure on them to help ensure their release. He did not identify those countries.

Shabanova said she regularly asked “people with power” to take action.

“Don’t look away,” she said, adding that the OSCE and the international community must ask themselves why their actions did not lead to the release of their husbands.

Her only wish was to “see my Dima walk through the door, just hold his hand, look into his eyes and say, ‘You’re at home now.