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Twenty journalists killed in Ukraine since 2014, says Russia’s OSCE envoy

Alexander Lukashevich also urged not to forget about the unlawfully persecuted journalists in Ukraine

VIENNA, December 20. /TASS/. Twenty reporters have been killed in Ukraine since 2014, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich stated on Thursday during a session of the organization’s Permanent Council in Vienna.

"On December 15, our country celebrated Remembrance Day of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty. On this day, we have once again remembered the Russian and foreign journalists killed in Ukraine. In the last four years, twenty reporters working for various media outlets were killed in Ukraine," Lukashevich said.

Anatoly Klyan, Anton Voloshin, Igor Kornelyuk, Andrey Stenin, Andrea Rocchelli, Oles Buzina, Sergei Dolgov, Vyacheslav Veremiy, Pavel Sheremet are among the reporters killed. "Unfortunately, the majority of these crimes remain unsolved to this day," the diplomat said, adding that UN experts raised this issue in the December 17 report, which analyzed the freedom of media in Ukraine.

Lukashevich also urged not to forget about the unlawfully persecuted journalists in Ukraine, like RIA Novosti Ukraine Editor-in-Chief Kirill Vyshinsky.

On May 15, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) carried out a large-scale operation against RIA Novosti Ukraine staff members, accusing them of high treason. The news agency’s Editor-in-Chief Kirill Vyshinsky was taken into custody.

The charges against Vyshinsky are particularly based on a number of articles dedicated to the 2014 events in Crimea. If found guilty, the journalist may face up to 15 years, but he pleaded not guilty.