Germany's defense and foreign ministers have expressed relief and thanks to those who helped after detained military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were released in Ukraine on Saturday.
Speaking at a joint press conference later in the day, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said they were "happy and relieved" at the OSCE team's release.
The two ministers gave thanks to those who were engaged in negotiations on freeing the observers for their "tireless, hard diplomatic work", including the OSCE negotiating team and the crisis management team set up by German Foreign Ministry.
Steinmeier and von der Leyen also praised the efforts of Vladimir Lukin, Russia's presidential special envoy to Ukraine, to help achieve the release. Also, the cooperation with the Ukrainian leadership and authorities was a prerequisite for the positive outcome, Steinmeier said.
According to reports of Germany's Focus Online, the freed members of the OSCE team have already arrived in Berlin.
A German-led Vienna Document inspection team and their Ukrainian escorts were reportedly held by pro-Russia activists in Ukraine's eastern town of Sloviansk last Friday.
The observers, all Europeans, belong to a military verification team deployed in March by the OSCE in eastern Ukraine to monitor the political and security situation in the country following pro-Russia protests in its eastern region.
The team included seven military officers -- three from Germany and one each from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland and Sweden -- and a German interpreter, along with five members of the Ukrainian military as escorts.