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Zvezda reporters detained by Ukraine’s National Guard

Journalists are accused of watching a checkpoint

© ITAR-TASS/ЕРА/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, June 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Reporters of Russia’s Zvezda TV channel were detained by Ukraine’s National Guard; they are accused of watching a checkpoint, a source at the National Guard said on Saturday, adding the reporters are at Ukraine’s Security Service now.

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Russian Zvezda TV channel says journalists disappear in east Ukraine

The National Guard says the reporters had on them documents confirming their accreditations by the Donetsk People’s Republic.

The detained are now at the Ukrainian Security Service, which will verify now the circumstances and purposes of their being next to the checkpoint.

Communication with Zvezda’s crew (cameraman Andrei Sushenkov and video engineer Anton Malyshev), which worked in Ukraine, was lost in the afternoon on June 6. The television channel says the reporters were detained not far from Slaviansk. People in black uniforms put on the reporters masks, handcuffs and kneeled them. After that, the reporters were taken somewhere. The Russian embassy in Ukraine has joined the efforts to release the reporters.

The Russian and the Moscow unions of journalists called for releasing the reporters.

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Ukraine Eastern Ukraine Media freedom Freedom of speech Journalism

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