Russian journalists come fire from Ukrainian troops in Lugansk

The battalion was billeted on military commissariat grounds. According to preliminary reports, three militia fighters were killed and two wounded in the attack.

Ten minutes after shelling began, all accredited TV channel crews and Rossiyskaya Gazeta reporter, Pavel Snegirev, arrived on the scene, according to the latter.

"Other journalists remained at the intersection while I walked around. I just wanted to take a picture. There was a militia fighters‘ cordon near the bus terminal, one of them was armed with a MANPAD. They checked my papers and asked me to present all the radio-electronic devices I was carrying for inspection, including my tablet computer and my old cellphone," he said. And then shells began to explode nearby.

"The explosion was so powerful the ground was shaking," Snegirev told Rossiya-24 TV channel.

Ukrainian female pilot indicted for complicity in Russian reporters' murder- Investigative Committee

Ukrainian woman pilot, Nadezhda Savchenko, has been charged with complicity in killing Russian journalists, said Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson, Vladimir Markin, to Interfax on Wednesday.

"Investigative agencies have indicted Savchenko for complicity in killing VGTRK journalists near Lugansk," Markin said.

Savchenko is currently being held at a detention facility in Russia’s Voronezh.

"It was found that Savchenko crossed the Russian border without papers and disguised as a refugee. She was stopped for identification during paper checks in a populated area," the Investigative Committee spokesman said.

After that it was found that Savchenko is a suspect in a criminal inquiry into the killing of the Russian reporters, Markin said.

In turn, Ukrainian President, Petr Poroshenko, has instructed the Prosecutor General's Office and the Foreign Ministry to look into military pilot Nadezhda Savchenko's detention by Russian investigative agencies on charges of involvement in the killing of Russian journalists in the east of Ukraine, presidential spokesman said at a news conference in Kiev on Wednesday.

Deputy presidential chief of staff Valery Chaly said the authorities were taking measures to secure the pilot's speedy release, Interfax reports.

Moscow to pay last respect to cameraman Anatoliy Klyan, killed in Ukraine

Last respects to the First channel cameraman Anatoly Klyan will be paid today in the Ostankino television center, reports TASS. He died on the night of June 30 in the journalists' bus shelling in Donetsk region. The tragedy occurred near one of the units where the film crew arrived to prepare the next report.

The trip was organized by the press service of the Donetsk People's Republic. Journalists were returning in a bus with the mothers of the soldiers, who were striving to return their sons home. The shooting began when they have already arrived to the place. Anatoly Klyan was fatally wounded in his stomach. Ukrainian doctors later found two bullet wounds.

Klyan was born on January 23, 1946, he was 68 years old. He has been working on television for 40 years, made thousands of reports, hundreds of missions, including in areas of hostilities: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan. He left on his last trip to Donetsk on May 28. Klyan had wife, two children and grandchildren.

Klyan's colleagues describe him an outstanding operator, brilliant professional and a lovely person. "He has gone through Yugoslavia, Iraq and Syria, he has been in dozens of hot spots and always returned home unharmed. In May Tolya volunteered to go to this trip, referring to the restrictions of the Ukrainian authorities due to the entering age as he was no longer subject to these restrictions and joked that in this case his age became an advantage to the young people," remembered his colleagues.

"Ukrainian government continues to kill journalists in the South-East. It is not satisfied that it is impossible to hide their actions against their own people. Our duty is to inform the country and the world about what our reporters have witnessed," said the First Channel in the day of the tragedy.

This is the third in the last two weeks death case of Russian journalists in Ukraine. Previously RTR correspondent Igor Korneliouk and his colleague Anton Voloshin were killed during the shooting. International organizations, in particular, the OSCE and the UN, strongly condemned the violence against Russian journalists in Ukraine and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, in return, initiated a criminal investigation into the death of Anatoly Klyan. State leaders, diplomatic agencies of other countries as well as the professional community have expressed their condolences over the tragedy.

Russian TV reporter injured in crossfire during punitive operation in eastern Ukraine

A reporter working for the Russian TV channel REN TV was injured on the border with Ukraine's Lugansk region when Ukrainian government forces opened fire, the Russian television station said on its Twitter account. Meanwhile Alexander Turchynov, the Verkhovna Rada Chairman, confirmed the resumption of the active phase of the forceful operation in eastern Ukraine.

“The crew of REN TV came under mortar fire near the Izvarino border checkpoint outside of Lugansk. Our correspondent was injured near the Izvarino border crossing on Russian territory. A projectile launched from the direction of Ukraine exploded near him," it said.

“Our correspondent Denis Kulaga suffered a concussion on the border near the Izvarino border crossing. He cannot hear anything. Our guys were covered by the blast wave," the TV station said.

Alexander Turchynov, the Verkhovna Rada Chairman, confirmed the resumption of the active phase of the forceful operation in eastern Ukraine.

"I talked to the defense minister and interior minister today: The active phase of the counter-terrorism operation resumed in the morning. Our armed forces are hitting bases and stations of terrorists," Turchynov said upon opening the parliament meeting on Tuesday.

The forceful operation resumed in eastern Ukraine overnight into Tuesday. Ukrainian eastern regions were hit with artillery fire and airstrikes, spokesman for the forceful operation Alexei Dmitrashkovsky said.

"Following the announcement of the Ukrainian president, the counter-terrorism operation came into effect. Artillery opened fire and airstrikes were held at strategic sites of terrorists and their gathering places," Dmitrashkovsky said.

A spokesperson for the Lugansk region said that tensions are running high in the region after the termination of ceasefire announdes by Petr Poroshenko.

"The situation in the republic remains tense. The information available to us indicates that minor armed clashes are underway near Izvarino. The villages of Metalist and Zheltoye have come under artillery fire. Children are now being evacuated from an orphanage in the Kamennobrodsky district of Lugansk, where fighting is taking place at the moment," he said.

"Militiamen continue to defend their land," he said.

The head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic Valery Bolotov announced at a press conference on Tuesday that REN TV journalists were deliberately targeted by the Ukrainian troops, reports Interfax.

Using special surveillance devices the solders recognized the group as media workers and opened fire, he said.

Channel 5 TV crew comes under shelling in Rostov region, not in Ukraine

Russia's Channel 5 TV crew came under fire in Russia's Rostov region rather than in southeast Ukraine as previously reported. None of the journalists was hurt, the channel's political observer, Vitaly Voronin, said on Friday. "I would like to calm everybody down. We are safe and sound. I am the cameraman. We were right in the epicenter of the shooting," the journalist said on air of Channel 5. He denied previous reports that a Russian customs checkpoint had come under fire.

"They targeted a territory located almost 3 kilometers away near an abandoned mine on the outskirts of the Devyatkin village. Eight explosions roared one after another some 500 meters away. We were nearby at that time making a film about the refugees," Voronin explained.

Initially, it was reported that a shell that had come from the Ukrainian territory had not burst. "We headed for the designated area and saw a demining car of the Special Police Force. Naturally, we came close to the group in order to shoot the demining process," Voronin added. Then, he said, the crew saw law enforcers, the OMON policemen, the troopers and investigators running away from the crater. The first explosion occurred 20 seconds later," Voronin went on to say. "We thought that the shell that had not burst finally detonated. But it was a real artillery shelling with another seven shells landing nearby," the Russian journalist said.

He declined to comment where the fire had come from - mortars, tanks or artillery guns. One of the details he has mentioned was that the explosions were strong and powerful. "We had an impression that the Ukrainian side had fired shells into the investigators who had arrived in a big white car which was too distinguished among the bushes and roads. It seemed that they were purposefully targeting the car and that we just caught it in the neck," the journalist emphasized.

According to Voronin, "the shooting was over very quickly." "The local residents told us the Ukrainian side was regularly shooting into the northern part of the Donetsk city located in Russia's Rostov region. At first, it was just one shell that landed in the Russian territory. Another shell flew in a day after. Finally, a massive artillery attack was launched," Voronin said.

"There were eight explosions. Luckily, no one was hurt. The locals say the (Russian authorities) could have detained a spotter who could have been located close to the scene and adjusted the fire coming from the Ukrainian side. We are at the scene now. We are going to show the details in our news programs," the journalist said in conclusion.

Overnight to June 30, Channel One staff came under fire in a Donetsk suburb in Ukraine. Cameraman Anatoly Klyan was fatally wounded in his stomach. The incident took place near the territory of a military unit where the journalists had come together with the mothers of conscript soldiers who wanted to take their sons home. All of a sudden, shots came from the military unit.

Klyan was not the first Russian journalist to die during the punitive operation which the troopers loyal to Kiev are carrying out in southeast Ukraine. In June, VGTRK reporter Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin died under shells near the Metallist village in the Lugansk region.