MOSCOW, May 19. /ITAR-TASS/. The director general of Russian LifeNews television channel has expressed hope that a Russian Foreign Ministry statement will contribute to an early release of two journalists detained in Ukraine’s southeast.

“I hope a Foreign Ministry statement will help, and the Ukrainian authorities will understand that they have made a serious mistake on the international arena, and will quickly set free our journalists,” Ashot Gabrelyanov told Echo of Moscow radio on Monday.

LifeNews contacted “people from the [radical] Right Sector movement and people connected with the Ukrainian Security Service, but they said they were not in the known,” he added.

The Foreign Ministry reported earlier on Monday that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had appealed to the leadership of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to use all its possibilities for the release of LifeNews journalists.

The Russian Embassy to Ukraine, for its part, say that attempts by military and law enforcement agencies to impede professional activity of Russian reporters in Ukraine have become regular and widespread.

On Sunday, LifeNews leadership appealed to Sergei Lavrov to help free reporter Oleg Sidyakin and cameraman Marat Saichenko detained in Ukraine’s southeast.

Reports coming on Sunday said Ukraine law enforcers had detained them near the city of Kramatorsk. Attempts to get in touch with the TV crew have failed since then. The reporters last contacted the editorial staff at 13:50 Moscow time (09:50 GMT) on May 18.