Head of self-proclaimed People's Republic of Luhansk Valeriy Bolotov has said that Hromadske TV journalist Anastasia Stanko and her cameraman Illia Bezkorovainy have been released, an Eastern option Internet publication reported on July 2.
According to the Web site, Bolotov said this at a press conference. He stressed that the journalists were released “at the request of the three leading Russian TV channels.”
A day earlier Hromadske TV said that armed LPR representatives captured Hromadske TV journalist Anastasia Stanko and her cameraman Illia Bezkorovainy while they were fulfilling their professional duties in the Luhansk region. The journalists were sent to Luhansk.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Lysenko, said that the Hromadske TV journalists were alive, and talks were under way to secure their release.
On the same day, LPR leader Valeriy Bolotov said the Ukrainian journalists captured in the LPR were accused of espionage.
On July 2, the chief executives of Russia’s Channel 1, VGTRK and NTV, Konstantin Ernst, Oleg Dobrodeyev and Vladimir Kulistikov, respectively, appealed to the LPR leader Bolotov for assistance in the release of the Hromadske TV journalists.
