Moscow Demands Release of LifeNews Journalists Detained in Ukraine

Russian Foreign Ministry demands the release of two LifeNews journalists detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kiev and Russian Investigative Committee launched criminal investigation into the detention.

MOSCOW, January 30 (Sputnik) – Moscow demands the release of two LifeNews journalists detained earlier in the day by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kiev, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.

“We demand to immediately release Russian journalists and stop the corrupt practice of intimidating journalists,” the ministry said.

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal investigation into the detention of two Russian journalists in Ukraine, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said Friday.

The case was launched on charges of obstruction of the lawful professional activity of journalists and abduction, he said.

Earlier on Friday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained LifeNews TV correspondent Yelizaveta Khramtsova and camerawoman Natalya Kalysheva in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged Ukrainian authorities to release the journalists immediately and to stop threatening reporters.

This is not the first case in which Russian and other foreign journalists have been detained or attacked in Ukraine.

In November, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic said that press freedom in Ukraine has been "repeatedly violated" in the wake of military operations against pro-independence forces in eastern Ukraine launched by Kiev in April.

"In this conflict alone, hundreds of journalists were attacked and as many as seven were killed," Mijatovic said.

In the most recent incident on January 1, LifeNews reporter Zhanna Karpenko and her cameraman were attacked by masked men in Kiev.