The Department for investigative crimes connected with the use of prohibited ways and means of warfare of the Investigative Committee’s Head Office continues looking into events n southeastern Ukraine.
The investigators and operative services have established the involvement of second in command of Right Sector (banned in Russia), Ukrainian citizen Valentin Manko in kidnapping of Russian journalists. There is a warrant to treat him as the accused of kidnapping and impeding journalists under Articles 126 and 144 of the RF Penal Code.
In June 2014, two journalists of the Russian TV channel Zvezda were on a journalistic mission in Ukraine. On their way from Donetsk to Dnepropetrovsk their vehicle was stopped at a roadblock. Following orders from Manko, members of Right Sector kidnapped the two Russians at gunpoint and took them to Dnepropetrovsk. They illegally held them there for the next 24 hours with Manko using physical violence demanding from the journalists to disclaim their truthful coverage of the events in Donbass.
Later on the Russian journalists were given to their representatives and released under the pressure of and following categorical demand of the Dnepropetrovsk Region authorities.
At the same time, the investigators keep on identifying individuals who illegally detained Russian journalists of LifeNews TV channel near the town of Kramatorsk, Donetsk Region in May 2014. At the time, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry published a video showing how the Russians were detained and featuring Grom portable aircraft missiles claiming that the journalists were trying to smuggle it to Donbass.
The evidence collected by the investigators, including results of a forensic examination of the videos, allowed determining the origins of the missiles. According to experts, the launcher and the missile were made industrially, probably in 2007 at one of Polish plants (its name is not being disclosed in the interest of the investigation). No such missiles were imported into Russia.
In addition, according to mass media, Poland with Ukraine as an intermediary sold a batch of Grom missiles to Georgia in 2007-2008 to use them against South Ossetia. Later on, the missiles were sold by Georgia to Ukraine. One of those missiles could have been used to make the video compromising the Russian journalists.
Considering the above mentioned circumstances the investigators believe the 2014 detention of Russian journalists illegal and unfounded and keep on working to identify persons involved in the crime.
Acting Head of Media Relations S.L. Petrenko
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