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Russian TV journalists come under fire in Donetsk

REN-TV journalists came under fire when they showed up at a hospital to record an interview about doctors who provided first aid to Agence France-Presse journalist who was injured last week
A broken hospital window in Donetsk (archive) Mikhail Sokolov/TASS
A broken hospital window in Donetsk (archive)
© Mikhail Sokolov/TASS

MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. Russian REN-TV channel journalists have come under mortar fire near the 21st city hospital in Donetsk, the TV channel said in a statement on Monday.

"REN-TV journalists came to the hospital to record an interview about doctors who provided first aid to Agence France-Presse journalist [who was injured last week]. Suddenly, the next street came under fire," the TV channel said.

The crew were not injured in the attack.

Earlier, the Donetsk city administration said that 10 people were injured in shellings from the Ukrainian forces over the last 24 hours.

AFP journalist wounded

An AFP journalist was wounded in the shelling of a Donetsk suburb, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Sunday.

"Today, [Agence] France-Presse reporter Alexander Gayuk was wounded in the shelling of the settlement of Oktyabrsky," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

The journalist was taken to a local hospital. He told the Donetsk News Agency over the phone he had been wounded in the knee. "The shelling was very intensive. I was lucky. The wound is not severe. I received first aid and will try to get out of here," he said.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a total of 61 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2014. Five journalists were killed in Ukraine. The most dangerous country for journalists in 2014 was Syria, where 17 journalists were killed in the line of duty.