They have been accused of crimes including treason and espionage, some deported to Siberian penal colonies, their health deteriorating, their families counting the days in anguish.

Moscow says the matter is closed. But the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says three of its workers arrested in Russian-occupied Ukraine in 2022 are being held on trumped up charges, and is demanding them back.

Dmytro Shabanov, Maxim Petrov and Vadym Golda were part of an OSCE mission sent to Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions in 2014, after fighting erupted there between Kyiv and pro-Russian separatists.

They were arrested shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 and sentenced by courts in the separatist regions to lengthy prison sentences.

"The waiting, not knowing, the en

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