MOSCOW, May 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian president’s special envoy Vladimir Lukin said on Monday he was ready to do all within his powers to assist in the release of LifeNews television channel journalists detained in Ukraine.

“If the Kiev authorities have any questions, ideas or offers on the issue, I think that everyone, including me, will be ready to discuss them and I am ready to take any possible part in it,” he told Rossiya 24 television.

Lukin said he was “upset and concerned” over the detention of Russian journalists. “Detaining journalists is incorrect, uncivilized and inadmissible,” he added.

LifeNews journalists Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko were detained by Ukraine’s National Guard near Kramatorsk (Donetsk region). Attempts to get in touch with them have failed since then. The reporters last contacted the editorial staff at 13:50 Moscow time on May 18.

Earlier on Monday, Deputy Secretary of the Ukrainian Council for National Security and Defence, Viktoriya Syumar, accused the detained journalists of being “part of terrorist groups,” saying “law enforcement agencies are now preparing findings concerning Russian journalists”.