Kidnapped Estonian citizen released in Ukraine

An Estonian citizen, who was kidnapped by Ukrainian separatists when participating in the OSCE mission as an observer at the end of May, has been released, writes Postimees Online.

Tõnis Asson was among the OSCE observers taken hostage in Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine on May 29.

The other OSCE observers in the same group of four were also released, reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet stated that now the priority is to organise the arrival of the Estonian citizen home as soon as possible.

“We will do this in co-operation with OSCE,” Paet added.

Donetsk separatists in Ukraine detained the OSCE special mission’s four-member team of observers on May 26 in Eastern Ukraine.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves thanked all those who were linked to the release of the OSCE observers in Eastern Ukraine, writes National Broadcasting.

“Welcome on your return to freedom. The OSCE observers, who were taken hostage by separatists in Eastern Ukraine 32 days ago, including our Tõnis Asson, were released tonight,” wrote Ilves on his Facebook page.

“Many thanks to all those who persisted in order to get them released. I hope that soon we will also be able to welcome the release the remaining four hostaged OSCE observers taken in the course of their the special monitoring mission,” added the president in his Facebook entry.