DONETSK / MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) - There is no evidence that a body found in one of the burned-out cars in eastern Ukraine may belong to a missing Rossiya Segodnya journalist, Deputy Interior Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Nikolai Kryuchenko told RIA Novosti.
"A car has been found with the bodies of three people inside. The remains were collected by criminologists today. A DNA testing will be commissioned," Kryuchenko said.
On Friday, the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said, citing DPR Deputy Interior Minister, that the missing Russian journalist Andrei Stenin might be among the dead. In the press release, the organization stressed that there was no evidence of this.
Several journalists have been reported missing in the southeastern Ukraine, where Kiev security forces are carrying out a special operation against independence supporters. Among them is the Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin.
"The investigation has no evidence that this is Stenin" Kryuchenko explained.
In turn, Director General of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency said that all versions associated with Stenin’s disappearance are being verified and so far not a single one of them has been confirmed.
"We are carefully checking all the versions associated with the disappearance of our photojournalist. Until now, none of them has been confirmed,” Kiselyov said.
Andrei Stenin was working in eastern Ukraine and has been unreachable beginning August 5. On August 12, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, said Ukrainian Security Service had arrested Stenin on charges of assisting terrorists, adding later that he did not really have information on the case and was misinterpreted.
Moscow has asked Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement, but Stenin’s location still remains unknown. The photographer is said to be now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list.
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.
