MOSCOW, August 26 (RIA Novosti) -Russian journalists Yevgeniya Koroleva and Maxim Vasilenko, detained by Right Sector militants in eastern Ukraine, have contacted Koroleva’s family, saying they will be released Tuesday evening, the editor-in-chief of the Crimean Telegraph newspaper, Maria Volkonskaya, said on air with Kommersant FM radio.
“Zhenya [Yevgeniya Koroleva] reached [her] sister Oksana and told her that they are not free, they are still there. They will be released in the evening. After that the phone was switched off. We understood that the journalists are with Right Sector,” said Volkonskaya, adding that earlier Koroleva called her friend, telling her that the journalists were taken off the bus by Right Sector representatives.
Earlier on Tuesday, human rights spokesman Andrei Krisko said Koroleva and Vasilenko have been freed and are on their way to Crimea, but received no proof the information was accurate.
The two journalists from the Crimean Telegraph went missing on Sunday in the area where the military operation in eastern Ukraine is ongoing. Vasilenko also does freelance work for Rossiya Segodnya and Agence France-Presse.
Another Russian journalist working for Rossiya Segodnya, Andrei Stenin, went missing in eastern Ukraine on August 5. Stenin’s current whereabouts are unknown.
