Two OSCE monitors were held briefly today at a checkpoint in eastern Ukraine before Ukrainian police secured their release.
"Two team members were held for a short time at the administrative building there. Local police units made it possible for the two members of the monitoring mission to leave the building unharmed," a spokeswoman for the pan-European security body told AFP.
The incident happened at the Yenakyeve checkpoint near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
They are part of a Special Monitoring Mission run by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe currently comprising 122 civilians based in 10 locations plus local staff.
Eight members of a separate OSCE military observers mission to Ukraine - four Germans, a Dane, a Pole, a Swede and a Czech -- were still being held today by pro-Russian militants in the flashpoint eastern town of Slavyansk.
Rebels say the captured men are "prisoners of war" and have accused them of being "NATO spies". They were presented to the media today and said they were unharmed.
A team of OSCE negotiators arrived in the town earlier today to try to secure their release.
