Our concern for fellow journalist Simon Ostrovsky is high. His captors say that he has switched sides and now supports their pro-Russian forces. That is a falsehood as he is being held in the SBU (former KGB) prison locally. He was detained along with several other journalists covering a news event in Kramatorsk, near the borders of Ukraine and Russia.
The news media is describing him as an “American” and he is now, but Simon was born in the Soviet Union and speaks Russian and Ukrainian fluently. He holds press credentials from the foreign ministry in Moscow and from the Ukrainian foreign ministry–these thugs have no right to hold him.
We saw a tweet from his cameraman Freddie Paxton and are hoping that Freddie has been released. Paxton was beaten up by pro-Russian thugs in Horlivka. Moscow journalist Roland Oliphant of the Daily Telegraph was also detained but has been released.
Ukrainian journalist Irma Krat has been taken hostage in Slavyansk by pro-Russian militants.