UST KAMENOGORSK, August 06. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday warned against attempts to intentionally hush up events in the south-eastern regions of Ukraine.

“When events in the south-east of Ukraine are hushed up intentionally, this misleads society and … distorts information,” he said.

Lavrov regretted that Western journalists had refused to meet with the Ukrainian soldiers, who had crossed into Russia earlier this week, talk to them and find out “what they experienced in the area of the ‘counter-terrorism operation’ which in reality is a civil war”.

“Western journalists are showing no enthusiasm in going there and talking with the witnesses of the events,” he added.

“A couple of days ago … we invited foreign journalists to use the Defence Ministry’s flight to Rostov on Don so that they could fly over there in one day, without the need to stay there overnight, talk with refugees and the Ukrainian servicemen who had crossed the border the day before and who were getting medical attention,” Lavrov said.

Many journalists accepted the invitation but “practically none of the Western mass media” did. “Bloomberg sent its correspondent over there, while all the others refused. Reuters also sent a reporter and he was on his way to the airport but then changed his mind and returned. Apparently, he had received instructions from his superiors, an independent and well known news agency. This is a situation that is quite clear to all honest people,” the minister said.

“We do hope that journalists will not have to face the need to betray the freedom of speech,” Lavrov said.