Former international mission worker is convicted of spying in Russian-held Donetsk

A former staff member of an international monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine was convicted of spying by a court in the Moscow-occupied Donetsk, the Russian prosecutor general’s office said Friday.

Vadym Golda — who was a security assistant for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s monitoring mission — was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his alleged crime which involved gathering information about industrial facilities, a statement by the Russian office said.

The information was gathered in 2021, before the start of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, the statement added. Some of the facilities came under attack in the war.

Golda was detained in September 2022 along with two other mission workers, both of whom were earlier sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The OSCE special monitoring mission was deployed in 2014 in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions after the start of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. It aimed to provide security reports and facilitate dialogue.

The mission withdrew at the end of March 2022 after the conflict grew into a full-scale war.

“Individuals working under an international mandate, such as OSCE officials, should never face arrest, harassment or detention for fulfilling their responsibilities,” said organization Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid, who said the OSCE would push for the release of all three.