The area where an RT Arabic television channel crew was working came under fire in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in southeastern Ukraine on Saturday, the network has reported. According to preliminary information, nobody was injured.
“Our correspondent said that the incident has occurred in the town of Zaitsevo, located near the line of contact between the two sides of the conflict in Donbass,” RT Arabic reported.
According to the channel’s editor-in-chief Maya Manna, the reporter Maxim Al-Toury, his cameraman, and assistant are all “alive and well” and are urgently leaving “the dangerous area.”
Authorities in both breakaway republics ordered evacuation of civilians to Russia on Friday, citing fears of a possible “breakthrough” attempt by the Ukrainian forces.
Kiev has been denying all allegations regarding any plans to retake the breakaway republics by force, blaming Russia for trying to find a pretext for its own invasion in Ukraine. Russia has also rejected such accusations and is calling on Ukrainian authorities to fulfill the Minsk agreements – the documents providing a roadmap to a peace settlement in eastern Ukraine.