MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Foreign Ministry does not have any information about the fate of a Rossiya Segodnya photo reporter, who went missing in Ukraine, the ministry's spokesperson said Wednesday.
Andrei Stenin, who was covering clashes between Kiev-led forces and independence supporters in Donetsk, Slaviansk and other eastern Ukrainian cities, went missing on August 5.
"We don't have any information from Kiev authorities regarding the fate of this person," Maria Zakharova said in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio.
"We are making all possible efforts to find out at least some bits of information about his fate, and we will continue doing it until the end," Zakharova said.
Russia has already filed two diplomatic notes to Ukraine over Stenin’s case urging Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement but his location still remains unknown. The photographer is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list.
On August 9, Rossiya Segodnya filed a request with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry to take immediate action to locate the photographer. The request was entered into the register of pre-trial investigations on August 11.
A day later, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with Baltkom radio that Stenin had been arrested by the security forces on charges of assisting terrorists.
Later Herashchenko claimed he was misinterpreted, saying he only assumed the photographer had been detained but had no precise information. Baltkom said it had a recording of Gerashchenko’s interview and provided it to Rossiya Segodnya.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said it has no information on the fate of the Rossiya Segodnya photographer.
