MOSCOW - The two journalists of the Russian TV channel LifeNews whom the Ukrainian Security Service detained in Kyiv on January 30 have been deported from Ukraine, the TV company said in a statement available on its website.
One of the two journalists, Yelizaveta Khramtsova, phoned the
LifeNews editorial office in Moscow to say that she and camera operator
Natalya Kalysheva had been familiarized with an order on their
deportation and transported by Ukrainian Security Service officers to a
checkpoint at the Ukrainian-Russian border. She said the two were
feeling well.
The Ukrainian Security Service had earlier confirmed the detention of
a LifeNews filming crew for what it described as activities harming
Ukraine’s national interests and unrelated to journalism.
“I confirm that Ukrainian Security Service officials have detained
two LifeNews journalists in Kyiv. Their permits to stay in Ukraine have
been cancelled and they will be expelled from Ukrainian territory in the
near future. They will also be barred from entering Ukraine for five
years,” Markiyan Lubkivsky, an adviser to the Ukrainian Security Service
chief, told Interfax on Friday.
“We regard their activities as incompatible with journalism and
harmful to Ukraine’s national security and national interests,” he said.
Lubkivsky did not specify under what circumstances the journalists were detained.
