MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Embassy in Kiev has sent a diplomatic note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in regard to the disappearance last week of photographer Andrei Stenin from the news agency Rossiya Segodnya.
“We have sent an inquiry along [our] operative channels and sent an according note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. But unfortunately, we haven’t received an answer yet,” the Russian Embassy said.
Stenin, who was working in Donetsk, Slaviansk and other eastern Ukrainian cities, went missing on August 5. On August 8, an informed source told RIA Novosti that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the Zaporizhia Region was holding the photographer in southern Ukraine. A spokesman for the local SBU office denied the information.
Earlier on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was making all possible effort to coordinate with corresponding agencies to secure Stenin’s return.
On August 9, Rossiya Segodnya submitted an application to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry with a request to take urgent measures to find Stenin. The office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media said earlier that it was checking reports on Stenin’s disappearance. The American Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is also investigating the case.
