MOSCOW, August 16 (RIA Novosti) - International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya’s photographer Andrei Stenin (#freeAndrew) is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list, Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said in an interview with 112 channel.
“Andrei Stenin has been put on the missing persons list, following the request from the organizations he worked for,” Gerashchenko said, hoping that one day Stenin will be found.
Since August 5, colleagues have been unable to reach Stenin, who had been working in eastern Ukraine. Sources reported that the photographer had been detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Zaporizhia Region in southern Ukraine, a claim later denied by Kiev.
On August 9, Rossiya Segodnya filed a request with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry to take immediate action to locate the agency’s photographer. The request was entered into the register of pre-trial investigations on August 11.
A day later, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with Baltkom radio that Stenin had been arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service on charges of assisting terrorists.
Later Herashchenko claimed he was misinterpreted saying he only assumed the photographer had been detained but disclosed no precise information. Baltkom said it had a recording of Herashchenko’s interview and provided it to Rossiya Segodnya.
Russia has already filed two diplomatic notes to Ukraine over Stenin’s case urging Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement.
Please support Andrei Stenin’s release by sharing the hashtag #FreeAndrew in social networks. Andrei is a professional war photographer reporting from the most dangerous war zones in the world. You can view Andrei’s pictures from Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya here and his most recent shots from eastern Ukraine here.
