Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist for the Brooklyn-based Vice News, was released in eastern Ukraine on Thursday after having been held hostage since Tuesday, according to a tweet from a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist.
“Vice News is delighted to confirm that our colleague and friend Simon Ostrovsky has been safely released and is in good health,” the news outlet stated. “We would like to thank everyone for their support during this difficult time.”
Ostrovksy is “free and safe,” reported the CBC’s Jean-Francois Belanger.
Another CBC journalist said that Ostrovsky was beaten and blindfolded during his captivity.
On Wednesday, Vyacheslav Ponomarev , the self-appointed mayor of Slovyansk where Ostrovsky had been held, said, “We need prisoners. They take ours, drive them to Kiev, torture them. Well, we’ve done the same.”
Stella Khoraeva, a spokeswoman for the pro-Russian invaders of Ukraine, explained that Ostrovsky was guilty of an “incorrect way” of reporting. She told the Daily Beast, “We knew where he was going and the men manning the checkpoint were told to look out for him.”
Below is a video of Ostrovsky’s report for Vice News in which he interviewed Ponomarev, who later kidnapped him.