DONETSK, May 26 (RIA Novosti) – A group of Russian journalists has come under fire at the Donetsk airport, where a shootout between self-defense forces and Ukraine’s National Guard continues, a reporter from Delovoi Petersburg newspaper told RIA Novosti Monday.
“We are lying prone on the pavement, we are being shot at,” the journalist said.
According to her, journalists were walking along the airport together with a group of self-defense forces when National Guard troops opened fire without warning.
On Monday, representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic wrote on Twitter that Ukrainian troops were bombing the airport with military aircraft. According to media reports, at least two people were injured.
Over the past two months, since Kiev’s authorities launched a special operation to crack down on pro-federalization supporters in southeastern regions of Ukraine, reporters of Russia’s leading media agencies have been kidnapped, beaten, threatened and denied access to the country. Broadcasting of Russian media has also been banned across Ukraine.
A new wave of violence swept the southeast of the country after Ukrainians went to the polls to vote in a new president on Sunday. The election was carried out against a backdrop of deep political strife and a massive military crackdown on the country’s east that has killed scores of civilians.
