Key facts
- Sybiha said the reported transfer places Golda's physical and mental health at even more serious risk.
- Sybiha said Golda would be the third Ukrainian OSCE staff member moved from occupied Ukrainian territory to Russia.
- Sybiha said the transfers would violate the Geneva Conventions and may amount to war crimes.
- Sybiha called on the OSCE secretary general and Switzerland, which holds the rotating chairmanship, to verify the detainees' whereabouts and secure their release.
- Sybiha said Ukraine will raise the issue at the OSCE Permanent Council.
- Golda's whereabouts had been unknown until the reported transfer emerged, according to the account.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on November 9, 2026 that Russia has reportedly transferred Vadym Golda, one of three Ukrainian employees of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe detained since 2022, to a medical correctional facility in Russia's Tambov Oblast.
In a post on X, Sybiha said the move placed Golda's health, both physical and mental, at even more serious risk. He said that if confirmed, Golda would become the third Ukrainian OSCE staff member transferred from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory to Russia, in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Sybiha said the actions may also amount to war crimes.
Golda worked for the OSCE's former Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and has been held by Russian authorities since 2022. In July 2024, a Russian-controlled court in occupied Donetsk sentenced him to 14 years in prison on espionage charges. According to the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group, Golda last contacted his family on October 15, having previously warned them about reports that Russia was transferring detainees from occupied Ukrainian territories to Siberia. His whereabouts remained unknown until the latest information about his reported transfer emerged.
The two other detained OSCE staff members, Dmytro Shabanov and Maksym Petrov, were sentenced to 13 years in prison by Russian-installed authorities in occupied Luhansk Oblast in September 2022 on treason charges. Both were subsequently transferred to prisons in Russia in 2025, with Shabanov held in Omsk Oblast and Petrov in Chelyabinsk Oblast.