OSCE Official Sentenced to 14 Years in Donetsk on Spying Charges

A Russian-installed court in Ukraine's Donetsk region has sentenced Vadym Golda, an OSCE official, to 14 years in prison for allegedly spying for foreign intelligence. The OSCE condemned the sentencing and called for Golda's release, along with two other employees jailed for treason in 2022.

A Russian-installed court in Ukraine's Donetsk region has sentenced Vadym Golda, an official of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to 14 years in prison. He was found guilty of spying for unspecified foreign intelligence agencies, according to Russia's prosecutor general.

In a statement released on Telegram, the prosecutor's office claimed that Golda had gathered information on industrial sites in Donetsk in 2021, which was later used to direct missile strikes on the province. The Vienna-based OSCE has strongly condemned the sentencing on social media and demanded the release of Golda and two other former employees who were jailed by Russia in 2022 on treason charges.

The OSCE, an intergovernmental organization consisting of 57 nations including Russia, Ukraine, and many Western countries, had deployed a monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine from 2014 to 2022 to oversee several ceasefires between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists. The mission was terminated following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

(With inputs from agencies.)