Ukraine rebel leader has released 2 US aid workers

Ukraine's pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said Saturday that insurgents had released two US aid workers detained for alleged spying.

"We have freed two Americans that we arrested earlier. One of the two is a CIA agent, the other was enlisted," Zakharchenko told journalists, without giving any more details.

The two men are believed to have been working for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) NGO in war-torn east Ukraine.

IRC head David Miliband released a statement saying that two of the organisation's workers who had been detained by the rebels some 10 days ago were now in a safe location, the BBC reported.

"Every day, the world's humanitarian workers show great courage, taking risks help the most vulnerable in crisis situations. They should never be targeted," Miliband said in the statement.

Over 30 IRC workers were reportedly detained after separatists raided their offices in Donetsk.

At the end of April several representatives of the New York-based NGO were expelled from Donetsk over espionage allegations after the rebels claimed to have found listening devices in their office.

"This is the first diplomatic scandal for our republic. All the devices were seized and handed over to the American authorities," Zakharchenko said.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Kiev said that they did not have any information on the release of the Americans.

Ukraine and the West accused Russia of masterminding the brutal separatist conflict in east Ukraine that has killed over 6,100 people in just over a year.