A former staff member of an international monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine has been convicted of spying by a court in the Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to the Russian prosecutor general’s office. The individual, who served as a security assistant for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's monitoring mission, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for allegedly gathering information about industrial facilities.
The information was collected in 2021, prior to the outbreak of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, the statement from the Russian office revealed. Some of the facilities that were reportedly surveyed came under attack during the conflict.
The convicted individual, along with two other mission workers, was detained in September 2022. The two colleagues were earlier sentenced to 13 years in prison. The OSCE special monitoring mission was established in 2014 in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions following the commencement of hostilities between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. Its primary objectives were to provide security reports and facilitate dialogue.
The mission concluded its operations at the end of March 2022 as the conflict escalated into a full-scale war. The Secretary General of the OSCE, Helga Maria Schmid, emphasized that individuals working under an international mandate, such as OSCE officials, should not be subjected to arrest, harassment, or detention for carrying out their duties. The organization has pledged to advocate for the release of all three individuals involved in this case.
