The correspondents came under grenade launcher and small
arms fire.
MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) on Monday confirmed that that its journalists were shelled in Donbass.
"The camera crew of the Rossiya TV channel came
under fire from Kiev’s military on the Donetsk-Gorlovka highway in the area of
the Yasinovataya roadblock. The information about the incident was confirmed by
VGTRK correspondent Stanislav Nazarov," a VGTRK statement said.
The journalist said the camera crew headed to the
locality of Yasinovataya, which is one of the Donbass’s hottest spots. They
were escorted by self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) special units
soldiers. After shooting started, the report said, the correspondents hid in
dugouts. In some 40 minutes they left the area.
Earlier, the DPR Defense Ministry said that on May 15 at
about 17:00 local time, a Rossiya television
channel group came under mortar shelling on the part of the Ukrainian army near the Yasinovataya roadblock. The
ministry said the correspondents also came under grenade launcher and small
arms fire.
Participants of the Contact Group on settlement of the
situation in eastern Ukraine on April 29 agreed on the occasion of the Orthodox
Easter to establish a regular "regime of silence" starting from
midnight April 30. But the militia and Kiev’s army keep accusing each other of
truce violations.
Participants of the Contact Group on February 12, 2015
signed in Minsk the Package of Measures on implementation of the Minsk
Agreements, earlier agreed with members of the Normandy Four (Russia, Germany,
France and Ukraine).
The document, dubbed "Minsk-2", envisions in
particular pardon through enactment of a law forbidding persecution and
punishment of people in relation to events in Donbass, cessation of fire,
withdrawal of heavy armaments from the contact line.
It also stipulates start of dialogue on restoration of
social and economic ties of Kiev and Donbass, as well as reform of the
Ukrainian constitution aimed at decentralization and strengthening of the
"special status of separate districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk
regions".
Source: ITAR-TASS 16-05-2016
