Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine have admitted they are holding four international monitors and said they may free them soon SIA reports quoting the Interfax.
The members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were stopped near Donetsk on Monday.
Fighting between pro-Kiev and rebel forces has worsened in recent days.
The four missing monitors - who are Turkish, Swiss, Estonian and Danish - are members of a monitoring mission sent to assess security in the area.
The town's self-proclaimed Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomaryov told Interfax on Thursday: "We know where they are, all is well with them".
He said the men had decided to travel to a separatist-held area despite having been warned "against going anywhere for a while" - the four held had been "the most eager ones".
"Of course they were detained" he said, although he insisted they had not been arrested.
The OSCE has said it does not know the monitors' whereabouts, but Mr Ponomaryov told another Russian news agency they were being held in the village of Makeyevka.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in eastern Ukraine says there have been cases of kidnapping as lawlessness has reigned amid fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia militias.
People have been either detained or attacked at rebel checkpoint.
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