UPDATE 2-Russia protests over shooting of cameraman in Ukraine
* Third Russian journalist killed in east Ukraine
* Moscow protests, expresses concern about ceasefire
* Kyiv says Russian reporters hard to identify in conflict
(Adds comment from Ukrainian Defence Ministry)
MOSCOW, June 30 (Reuters) – Russia protested to Ukraine on
Monday and accused it of undermining a shaky ceasefire with
pro-Moscow separatists after a Russian television cameraman was
shot dead in eastern Ukraine.
Anatoly Klyan, who worked for state-controlled Channel One,
was killed in what his employers said was an overnight attack by
Ukrainian forces on a bus carrying journalists and soldiers’
mothers.
Russia said the death of the 68-year-old undermined faith in
Kyiv’s commitment to a ceasefire and its desire to end weeks of
conflict peacefully.
The Ukrainian authorities, for their part, say the
separatists have repeatedly breached the ceasefire with attacks
on military posts and Ukrainian bases since it was declared on
June 20.
Klyan was the third journalist from a Russian state network
to be killed since pro-Russian separatists began an uprising in
east Ukraine in April. An Italian journalist and his Russian
translator were also killed in May.
Klyan was shot in the stomach while accompanying a group of
soldiers’ mothers on their way by bus to a Ukrainian military
unit “to meet their sons and take them home,” Channel One said,
apparently meaning that the women wanted the troops to withdraw
and stop fighting the separatists.
It said the bus withdrew after coming under fire as it
approached the base, but Klyan died in a round of automatic
rifle fire after getting off it.
Moscow renewed calls for an end to Ukraine’s military
operation in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where
separatists have seized state buildings and weapons arsenals.
“The death of a Russian journalist again convincingly
demonstrates that Ukrainian forces clearly do not want a
de-escalation of the conflict in the east of the country,” the
Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“They are hampering the already fragile ceasefire,” it said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee later opened a criminal
investigation into the shooting, Interfax news agency said.
Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman Bohdan Senyk said he
had no information about the violence but that Russian
journalists had worked among separatists in the past, making it
difficult to identify them as reporters.
“Russian journalists have more than once worked among
terrorist groups and those who send them bear responsibility for
them,” he said.
Sporadic violence has continued in eastern Ukraine despite a
ceasefire declared by President Petro Poroshenko on June 20 to
allow for peace talks with the rebels.
Poroshenko said last Thursday that 18 Ukrainian servicemen
had been killed since he announced the truce, including nine who
died in the downing of a helicopter by separatists near the
rebel stronghold of Slaviansk on June 24.
The ceasefire was due to expire at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) on
Monday but the Ukrainian, Russian, French and German leaders
were due to discuss the crisis in Ukraine by telephone before
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(Reporting by Jason Bush and Alissa de Carbonnel in Moscow,
Thomas Grove and Richard Balmforth in Kyiv and Maria Tsvetkova
in Donetsk, Ukraine; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)