The death of journalists in the east of Ukraine is being thoroughly investigated, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yevgen Perebyinis said on Wednesday, July 2.
“Those responsible will be brought to justice by all means,” he said.
At the same time, Perebyinis expressed doubt that Russian Channel One cameraman Anatoly Klyan’s death in an attack on a bus with journalists in the Donetsk region was to be blamed on the Ukrainian military.
He stressed that “Ukraine strictly complies with the democratic norms and principles of freedom of the media and is talking all measures to ensure their operation”.
Klyan was killed on the night from June 29 to June 30 on the outskirts of Donetsk near one of the military units where the TV crew came to film a news report for the Russian channel. The trip had been organised by the press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. The journalists were travelling in a bus together with the mothers of active duty soldiers who wanted their sons to go home. Suddenly, shots were fired. Klyan received a fatal stomach wound. Later Ukrainian medics registered two gunshot wounds.
At least three Russian journalists covering developments in Ukraine’s embattled southeastern regions were killed in June. The most recent tragic death of a Russian reporter came on Sunday night.
On June 17, two Russian journalists - Igor Kornelyuk and soundman Anton Voloshin of the VGTRK television company were killed in eastern Ukraine.