Crew of Russian LifeNews TV Channel to be Deported From Ukraine

The crew of the Russian media outlet LifeNews, which has been detained in Kiev by the Ukrainian Security Service, is set to be deported from Ukraine and has been banned from entering the country for five years.

MOSCOW, January 30 (Sputnik) — The Ukrainian Security Service says that the crew of the Russian media outlet LifeNews,correspondent Elizaveta Khramtsova and cameraperson Natalya Kalysheva, who has been detained in Kiev, is set to be deported from Ukraine and has been banned from entering the country for five years.

“I would like to confirm that the Ukrainian Security Service has detained two female citizen of the Russian Federation, journalists from the TV Channel LifeNews. They are set to be deported from the territory of our country in the nearest future and be banned from entering Ukraine for the next five years,” the Advisor to the Ukrainian Security Service, Markian Lubkivskyi, wrote on his Facebook page.

публикация Markian Lubkivskyi.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has demanded the immediate release of the Russian journalists.

"What is of special notice is that it is not the first case when the work of Russian journalists has been hampered, either by Ukrainian radicals or by state institutions. Employees from the TV channel LifeNews were exposed to a direct attack amid the absolute inactivity of the law enforcement agencies and had to face artificial administrative barriers," reads a statement from the Ministry’s Department of Information and Press.

"Therefore, we demand the immediate release of the Russian journalists and a stop to the vicious practice of bullying the representatives of the mass media. We are waiting for a corresponding reaction from the specialized international organizations and, first of all, OSCE representative on the freedom of the press Dynya Myatovich on the latest illegal act on the part of the Ukrainian authorities, who systematically clear the Ukrainian information space of impartial views on the events going on in the country," the statement concludes.

According to preliminary reports, the accreditation of the journalists and technical workers of some Russian media outlets has been suspended by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament. 

The list of Russian media companies had reportedly been drafted by the Security Service of Ukraine.