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.

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