Vice News Journalist Simon Ostrovsky Freed by Ukraine Separatists

By Paul Berger April 24, 2014

An American-Israeli journalist who was detained in Ukraine has been released, according to VICE News.

Simon Ostrovsky, who has filed a series of often hard-hitting reports on Ukraine for VICE, was seized on Monday along with several other Western journalists.

While those journalists were quickly released, Ostrovsky was detained until Thursday.

Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the self-appointed People’s Mayor of Sloviansk, told ABC News that Ostrovsky was detained because his reporting is “one-sided.”

Ponomarev said that Ostrovsky “has to learn a lesson and he will get it.”

A statement on VICE’s website said that Ostrovsky was in good health.

“Out of respect for Simon and his family’s privacy, we have no further statement at this time,” the news site said.

Paul Berger was a staff writer at the Forward from 2011-2016, covering crime and healthcare issues, such as sex abuse, circumcision, and fraud. He is a fluent Russian speaker and has reported from Russia and Ukraine. He also likes digging into historical mysteries.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO