MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to take all the necessary measures to release Russian journalists detained by security forces in Ukraine.
Two LifeNews reporters, Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko, have been detained by the National Guard of Ukraine near the city of Kramatorsk. News Media Holding, which owns LifeNews, has asked the Russian foreign minister to assist the release of the detained Russians.
In a phone conversation on Sunday evening, Sergei Lavrov asked OSCE Chairman Didier Burkhalter “to use all the possibilities to organize immediate release of Russians,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The OSCE chairman assured that he will try to resolve the situation soon.
Russia has made similar appeals to the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, Austria, and the mission’s headquarters in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, the statement said.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry will continue seeking speedy settlement of the situation around Russian journalists,” the ministry’s statement reads.
Over the last two months, reporters of Russia’s leading channels have been kidnapped, beaten, threatened and denied access to Ukraine. Broadcasting of Russian media has also been banned across the country.
Moscow has repeatedly called on the international community to condemn Ukraine’s violations of media freedom and violence against journalists in the country.
