With over two weeks since his disappearance in eastern Ukraine, the whereabouts of Russian photojournalist Andrey Stenin remain unknown. His colleagues suggest that he may soon be freed as part of a large exchange of captives.
Stenin’s employers at Rossiya Segodnya news agency (formerly RIA
Novosti), said that they have so far failed to get any
information on their journalist from the Kiev authorities.
“Our attempts to receive any explanation and accurate information
about his fate have been in vain,” Aleksandr Shtoll, who
heads the photo department at Rossiya Segodnya, said at a press
conference in Moscow.
“We’d like to learn of his whereabouts as soon as possible.
We’re doing everything possible to achieve this,” he added.
The Russian government is also “doing everything
possible” to locate the journalist, Shtoll said, saying that
the country’s ambassador to Kiev has already filed two enquiries
to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, but so far has received no
reply.
"The agency did everything for the criminal investigation to
be opened into the disappearance of Andrey [Stenin] in eastern
Ukraine – and such a case was opened, but there’s also no answer
there. The only thing that we have is acynical statementby Anton Gerashchenko,
an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, who said that for
now he doesn’t want to be bothered by questions on Andrey’s
fate,” Shtoll said.
“Stenin is on the wanted list [in Ukraine], but I'm not sure
that Kiev has full control over the entire territory of Ukraine.
I have no confidence that they can organize such a search that
can help us in our cause,” he added.
US National Press Club (NPC) has called for Stenin's release in a statement on Monday.
"It is very important that Andrey Stenin be quickly located and freed if he is being held by Ukrainian security services," said NPC President Myron Belkind.
Belkind also said it is “crucial that all sides in this conflict… cease obstructing the ability of the press to cover events in eastern Ukraine, which are of great consequence to the Ukrainian public and to the international community."
Meanwhile, journalist Dmitry Steshin, who covers events in
Ukraine for Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, said that Stenin may
soon be included in a large exchange of captives.
“I’m sure that Andrey [Stenin] is alive and he’s being held
for a reason, as he’s being prepared for an exchange,” he
said.
Steshin said he last saw Stenin in Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region,
and the Rossiya Segodnya journalist had no plans of returning to
Russia despite the events heating up in the eastern Ukrainian
city, Steshin said.
“Andrey has lost his sense of reality,” he added.
Rossiya 24 channel’s producer, Oleg Ternovoy, said that situation
around Stenin is “unprecedented” as there’s no news
about the journalist for more than two weeks.
“Let us stand up together to protect our guys because each of
us could be in the same situation,” Ternovoy urged his
Russian colleagues.
On Monday, Russia’s permanent mission at UNESCO urged the
international community to pay special attention to Stenin’s
abduction and support calls for his early release.
“Our common goal is to convey information to the public and
the media; to support the person in distress. We rely on your
help,” the mission said a statement.
“We strongly encourage you to support the #freeAndrew”
hashtag,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ultranationalist group Right Sector said that it had nothing to do with Stenin’s disappearance.
“This man wasn’t seized by the Right Sector troops. I can’t give you accurate information on that. That’s all the information I have,” Borislav Bereza, Right Sector spokesman, told Latvian Baltkom radio.
Earlier, other organizations promoting media freedoms and human
rights, including the International Federation of Journalists,
the European Federation of Journalists, Amnesty International and
the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists called on Ukraine
to investigate Stenin’s disappearance, and release him if he has
been arrested.
An experienced war photographer, Stenin went missing on August 5
as he was covering the Ukrainian army’s campaign against the
anti-Kiev rebels in the country’s southeastern Donetsk and
Lugansk regions.
His recent work included photos of soldiers of the Ukrainian army
captured by the armed militia, the horrific results of Ukrainian
artillery shelling of militia-held cities and the crash site of
the Malaysian Airlines plane that was downed over the Donetsk
region in July.
Latest week, Gerashchenko told Latvian Baltkom radio that Stenin
had been arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service and stands
accused of “aiding and glorifying terrorism.”
The interior minister’s adviser later backtracked on the
statement, saying that it was only his assumption and that he had
no “documentary proof” of the Russian journalist’s
arrest.
Stenin was put on the wanted list in Ukraine after the Russian
embassy in Ukraine inquired about his whereabouts to Kiev on
August 8 and 11.
The intimidation and abduction of Russian
journalists by the Kiev authorities has become a sad trend since
the military campaign began in the country’s southeast this
April.
Journalist, stringers, cameramen and other staff of LifeNews TV
channel, Channel One TV and RT have been detained, interrogated
and tortured by the Ukraine security services.
Rossiya channel’s Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, as well as
Anatoly Klyan, were killed by Kiev’s troops in June.