MOSCOW, August 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's Permanent Delegation to UNESCO called on the international community to pay special attention to the disappearance of Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin (#FreeAndrew) in Ukraine and support requests for his speedy release, the organization said on its website.
"We call on UNESCO and the international community to pay special attention to the incident, with the hope that it will contribute to the speedy release of Andrei," UNESCO said in a statement.
The organization also asked for social media support by sharing hashtags #freeAndrew and its Russian version.
"Our common goal – to convey information to the public and the media to support the person in distress," the statement said.
Since August 5, colleagues have been unable to reach Stenin, who had been working in eastern Ukraine. On August 12, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with Latvian radio station Baltkom 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 that he possessed 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, but his location is still unknown. The photographer is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list, Herashchenko said Saturday.
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.
