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Kiev’s troops detain Donetsk journalist on way from Slavyansk to Kramatorsk

Slavyansk people’s mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev said he had been told about the detention by the military by phone

SLAVYANSK, May 10 /ITAR-TASS/. Kiev’s troops on Saturday, May 10, detained a local journalist, Artyom Larionov, who was going in a car from the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk to neighbouring Kramatorsk.

Slavyansk people’s mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev said he had been told about the detention by the military by phone. They had not provided any explanations.

Larionov’s detention was confirmed by the taxi driver who was giving him a lift. The journalist left his belongings and camera in the car. The taxi driver brought them back to Slavyansk.

Artyom’s colleagues say he is married, his wife and two daughters live in Donetsk. He is a freelancer, keeps a blog and posts materials about events in the South-East of Ukraine.

This is not the first such detention in Ukraine. On April 25, Security Service commandos detained Russian LifeNews television channel’s reporter and cameraman, Yulia Postoplesnova and Mikhail Pudovkin, in Donetsk. The military said the journalists’ presence in Ukraine was “threatening its integrity and security”.