The prime minister of the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic, Vasyl Nikitin, said no information was available to him about the detention of Anastasia Stanko, a reporter with the Hromadske TV station, and her cameraman.
“I have no information about these journalists’ presence in the Luhansk People’s Republic, or about their detention,” Nikitin told Interfax on Tuesday.
But he made a point that journalists working in the Luhansk People’s Republic without accreditation “can be theoretically detained.”
“We want journalists to wear bullet-proof jackets and get an accreditation to get the right to film even during curfew,” Nikitin said.
Spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Andriy Lysenko said on July 1 that the journalists are alive and that talks are underway to ensure their release.
“They are alive and the talks are continuing. We hope everything will work out well,” he said at a press briefing in Kyiv.
News about Stanko and her cameraman’s alleged detention by representatives of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic was earlier released by Hromadske TV.
