BAKU, 27 June 2014 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ranko Krivokapic today welcomed the release of four Donetsk-based monitors from the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine after they had spent 32 days in captivity.

“I was happy and relieved to hear that one of the OSCE’s teams of monitors was released in eastern Ukraine. I commend the Swiss Chairmanship-in-Office of the OSCE and the participating States involved for their dedicated work to facilitate this,” said Krivokapic.

“My thoughts are also with the Luhansk-based team of monitors, who are still being held. I hope this release will help convince their captors that it is in no one’s interest to detain individuals who are simply trying to provide an objective picture of events on the ground,” he added.

The OSCE PA President is currently in Baku for the PA’s 23rd Annual Session. He will address the opening plenary on 28 June, along with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Swiss President and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Didier Burkhalter, Russian State Duma Chair Sergey Naryshkin and Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Deputy Chair Ruslan Koshulynskyi.

Nearly 300 parliamentarians from across the OSCE area will participate in a special debate on the situation in Ukraine on 1 July. Resolutions and supplementary items to be considered in Baku also deal with the crisis in Ukraine.

The Annual Session schedule and related materials are available here.  

Meetings will be live-streamed on oscepa.org and posted on the OSCE PA YouTube page.