KIEV, May 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Obstruction to professional activity of Russian journalists in Ukraine by military and law enforcement agencies has become regular and countrywide. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies detained and took in an unknown direction journalists of Russian TV channel LifeNews Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko near the city of Kramatorsk in southeast Ukraine’s Donetsk region on May 18, the press service of the Russian Embassy in Kiev said on Monday.

“This is much more than the first detention of Ukrainian law enforcers by Russian journalists,” the press service noted, adding that “On April 16, representatives of Ukrainian armed forces detained a crew of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) and journalist of Russian TV channel NTV Stepan Chirich was brutally detained and beaten by representatives of local self-defense force near the city of Pervomaisk in Dnepropetrovsk Region [southeast Ukraine] on April 23.”

“Information about cases of obstructing professional activity of Russian journalists by Ukrainian military and law enforcement agencies is coming from different settlements of the country.”

Such Ukrainian actions “run counter to international law provisions that regulate work of representatives of media outlets in a foreign country, saying nothing about numerous Ukrainian pledges that they impose no restrictions on activity of foreign journalists in the country,” the press service said.

The Russian Embassy insists on an immediate end to such actions. “Arbitrariness and repressions against journalists and media actually an encroachment on the freedom of speech which is one of most fundamental freedoms in the modern world,” the press service said, adding that “Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko should be released immediately.