MOSCOW, May 25 /ITAR-TASS/. Any journalist working in Ukraine where armed standoff continues in the country’s eastern regions is in mortal danger, a released reporter of the Russian LifeNews TV channel said on Sunday.

LifeNews journalists Marat Saichenko and Oleg Sidyakin were detained by Ukraine’s National Guard near the city of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk Region on May 18. They were released from their Ukraine captivity early on Sunday.

“We understand that all those who are working there [in Ukraine] face a mortal danger, which we have been lucky to escape,” Saichenko said at a press conference in Moscow.

“We understand that our colleagues from our television channel and also journalists from Russian and foreign media are working in Sloviansk, Luhansk and Mariupol,” he said.

In turn, Sidyakin said: “We are requesting those who captured us to leave them in peace. We are not an object or a target. We report what we find. In general, a war is not a method to resolve issues. This is not right when people are killed,” he said.

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday the death of Italian photographer Andy Rocchelli outside the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk Region.

Kiev’s authorities are continuing to carry out a punitive combat operation in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which declared their independence from Ukraine at the May 11 referendums.