Ukrainian Forces Fire at Russian Journalists in Donbass

Crews from several Russian television channels came under machinegun fire on Monday by Ukrainian government forces while filming at a school in southeastern Ukraine, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

SAKHANKA (Ukraine), (Sputnik) — NTV, Rossiya, Channel One, and Channel 5 were reporting about last Sunday’s attack at a school in the village of Sakhanka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) when the shooting began.

"An NTV filming crew was fired at in the DPR. Correspondent Ilya Ushenin and cameraman Timur Voronov were filming inside one of local schools," the NTV channel said in a statement on its website.

The journalists fled behind the school building and stayed sheltered until the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) monitors arrived. The gunfire continued for several minutes, they said. None of the journalists was injured.

The Ukrainian coup-imposed government in Kiev launched an operation in April 2014 to defeat independence supporters in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics in Donbass. A contact group of Ukrainian, Russian, French and German envoys has been meeting regularly to end the fighting.