MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - The memory of International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin will live on in his photographs, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a telegram.
“I hope those who committed this outrageous crime will be punished. Andrei travelled to many war zones around the world. His photographs, always meaningful and vivid, told about the misery of people on both sides of a conflict. Andrei’s reports will always be a part of memory of him,” the telegram said.
“I offer my sincerest condolences over the death of Andrei Stenin, a talented journalist and photographer. It is a tragedy when the life of a young, lively man is cut short by war where he did not use a weapon, by the war the horror and injustice of which he tried to convey in his photographs. It seems like the most vivid manifestation of love for humanity – to put yourself under fire to say that there should not be wars,” Medvedev continued.
On Wednesday, Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev announced that according to information from the Russian Investigative Committee, Stenin, who went missing in Ukraine on August 5, died about a month ago near Donetsk when the car he was travelling in while on an editorial assignment was shot at and torched on a highway just outside the city.
The committee said the attack was carried out by Ukrainian forces on a column of refugees guarded by several eastern Ukraine independence supporters. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council has denied any involvement of Kiev’s militants in the tragedy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have also expressed their condolences over Stenin’s death.
Stenin went missing in eastern Ukraine on August 5. Sources suggested that the Ukrainian military could have detained the journalist, but Kiev has never officially confirmed the information. Several events in support of the journalist were held around the world while his fate remained unknown.
