Kidnapped In Slovyansk

Pro-Russian forces in the eastern Ukrainian city have abducted American reporter Simon Ostrovsky (whose latest Vice dispatch from Slovyansk is above):

Ostrovsky, a veteran reporter for a number of outlets, had been filing regular video reports from the region for Vice, including the one above on Ukrainian forces’ botched attempts to retake Slovyansk, which was posted on Sunday. This just the latest is a series of attacks on the press by pro-Russian forces in the area, including the arrest of journalist and activist Irma Krat. [Ostrovsky's cameraman Frederick] Paxton himself was beaten by a pro-Russian crowd last week. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented multiple cases of journalists being “assaulted, detained, or obstructed from reporting” in Russian-controlled Crimea.

It seems the insurgents have no plans to release him anytime soon:

“He’s with us. He’s fine,” [the group's spokeswoman] Stella Khorosheva told The Associated Press, adding, “(We) need to be careful because this is not the first time we’re dealing with spies.” Khorosheva also told The Daily Beast that Ostrovsky is being held according to the “laws of war” because “he was not reporting in a correct way.”

Perhaps more worrisome, the spokeswoman said that the militants had planned the journalist’s kidnapping. “We knew where he was going and the men manning the checkpoint were told to look out for him,” Khorosheva said of Ostrovsky. Sloviansk’s self-declared “mayor” told a journalist that he was holding the Vice News reporter “as is their right, will release him whenever he deems fit.” Speaking to the Russian outlet Gazeta.ru, Vyacheslav Ponomarev said, “We won’t release Ostrovsky any time soon. We need hostages — small change to trade with Kiev.”

Joe Coscarelli suspects the pro-Russians didn’t appreciate his brand of gonzo journalism:

He was … reporting in the Vice and Ostrovsky way, which one reporter described as “poking the bear with a video camera and seeing what reaction he gets.” A dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel, Ostrovsky has spent weeks in Ukraine aggressively covering the conflict by getting in the middle of it. In one clip, he approaches the Russian insurgents only to get roughed up. “Stand fucking still,” the soldier tells him as the camera gets jostled. “I said stand still. I’ll shoot to kill!” (The video has since been made private by the Vice News YouTube channel, but can be seen here.)

Robert Mackey puts the kidnapping in the context of the volatile situation in the city (NYT):

Tensions in Slovyansk spiked over the weekend, when a gun battle late Saturday left at least three men dead in murky circumstances. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksander Turchinov said in a statement that government forces would relaunch the operation to quell the separatist movement after it was revealed that one of the “brutally tortured” bodies discovered near Slovyansk was a government official from the president’s own political party.

Before his disappearance, Mr. Ostrovsky reported on Monday via Twitter that Vyachislav Ponomaryov, a pro-Russian activist and the town’s de facto mayor, had berated journalists for “provocative” questions about the town’s former mayor, and a woman pressed reporters to make donations toward the funeral expenses of the separatists killed in the shootout.