Last respects to Russian cameraman killed in Donetsk region of Ukraine to be …
He left on his last mission – for the Donetsk region – May 28 and his colleagues say he was supposed to return to Moscow July 1.On the night from Sunday to Monday, June 30, Anatoly turned out to be riding in a bus that was trapped in gunfire. He received lethal wounds.
The tragic incident unfolded in the area of military base No. 1428 located near the township of Avdeevka, some 15 km away from Donetsk. The reporters were riding in the bus together with a group of mothers of conscript soldiers, who were making the trip in a bid to take their sons, mostly teenage boys, back home.
When the gunfire began, the reporters managed to get on the bus and move about 500 meters away from the military base. They got off the bus then but a pistol flare light appeared in the sky immediately after that and fire from automatic assault rifles was opened.
Anatoly was wounded. His fellow-reporters gave him first aid and rushed him to the nearest outpatient clinic by hitching a ride on a private car but medics did not manage to save his life.
This is not the first case of a Russian reporter dying in Ukraine. Earlier last month, the reporter working for the All-Russia Broadcasting Company, Igor Kornelyuk, and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed by gunfire in the Donetsk region when they were making footage of local self-defense force fighters helping civilians to get out of a dangerous area.
International organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the UN have condemned a yet another act of violence against Russian reporters in Ukraine and have demanded that the authorities in Kyiv do a thorough investigation of the incident. Russia’s Investigations Committee has instituted a criminal case over Anatoly Klyan’s death. Condolences to his family and friends have been expressed by top state officials, diplomatic mission of other countries, and professional communities.