Kiev loses contact with OSCE mission, kidnapping feared

Kiev has lost contact with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission deployed in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Friday. Preliminary information suggested that the OSCE observers may have been kidnapped by pro-Russian protesters who took control of several cities in Donetsk, Foreign Ministry spokesman Eugene Perebiynis told a media briefing. "We have lost contact with the military mission of the OSCE, which works in Ukraine in line with the Vienna Document," Perebiynis said. Under the agreement reached in Vienna on March 21 between the OSCE members, the organization decided to send a six-month monitoring mission to Ukraine in a bid to ease tension and defuse a military standoff in the country. The OSCE oversees the disarmament of militants and the evacuation of occupied buildings and streets in east Ukraine, where pro-Moscow activists demanded a referendum on autonomy and closer ties with Russia. The 57-member OSCE addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism, and economic and environmental activities.