VIENNA, May 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s permanent representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has ignored demands for a release of Russian reporters from the LifeNews television channel and providing access to them for OSCE observers, Russian OSCE ambassador Andrei Kelin said on Thursday.

“The Ukrainian ambassador confirmed that these men were accused of terrorism and said nothing more. That was all,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Andriy Parubiy said that a decision about handing over the two arrested Russian LifeNews reporters to Russia would be taken by a Ukrainian investigator. “The investigation is still underway,” he said, adding that it would be up to the investigator to decide about the charges against the Russian journalists. “It will also be up to the investigator to decide whether to hand them over to the Russian side,” he said.

Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko, reporters from the Russian television channel LifeNews, were detained by Ukraine’s National Guards near the city of Kramatorsk, a major industrial and mechanical engineering centre in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, on May 18. Deputy Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Viktoria Syumar has accused them of abetting terrorism in the Donetsk region, claiming they were “members of terrorist groups.