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Moscow insists Kiev must stop detaining reporters

MOSCOW, June 16, /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow insists that Kiev must stop its practice of detaining reporters, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

“On June 16, Russian reporters - Yevgeny Davydov and Nikita Konashenkov, who work for the Zvezda television channel, were set free,” the ministry said in a statement. “It’s wonderful news.”

“The journalists were released thanks to persistent work of all Russian agencies with the active participation of and support from the country’s mass media,” the ministry said.

Russia “insists that unlawful detentions of Russian reporters in Ukraine must be stopped and their right to unhindered and objective coverage of events in that country must be ensured,” it said.

On Monday officials of the Dnepropetrovsk regional authorities handed over Zvezda correspondent Yevgeny Davydov and sound engineer Nikita Konashenkov to the Russian naval attache said Eduard Belashev.

On June 15 the Russian Defence Ministry-run Zvezda channel reported that Davydov and Konashenkov had been detained at the National Guard’s security checkpoint in the area near the Pokrovskoye locality and later driven to the city of Dnepropetrovsk.

The channel said that the reporters had been on an official business trip and had on them all the required documents and airline tickets back to Russia.

The aircraft with the released reporters on board has already landed in Moscow.

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