Former OSCE Staff Sentenced for Spying in Donetsk

Vadym Golda, a former OSCE security assistant, has been sentenced to 16 years for espionage by a court in the Moscow-occupied Donetsk region. Accused of gathering industrial facility information before Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, Golda was detained in September 2022. OSCE seeks the release of all detained personnel.

Vadym Golda, a former security assistant for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Moscow-occupied Donetsk court on charges of espionage. Golda was convicted of collecting information on industrial facilities in eastern Ukraine during 2021.

According to the Russian prosecutor general's office, some of the industrial sites Golda surveyed later became targets in the ongoing conflict. Golda’s arrest in September 2022 was part of a broader crackdown that also saw two other mission workers detained and sentenced to 13 years each.

The OSCE special monitoring mission, which was introduced in 2014 to offer security assessments and foster dialogue amid clashes between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, withdrew in March 2022 as the conflict escalated into full-scale war. OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid condemned the sentencing, stating that mission personnel operating under international mandates should be immune from such legal repercussions. The OSCE plans to advocate for the immediate release of all detained members.