Russian Journalist 'Detained, Beaten, Deported' By Rebels In Ukraine, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports
A correspondent for a Russian newspaper that has challenged the Kremlin's narrative about the conflict in Ukraine says he was detained, struck in the face, and deported by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Pavel Kanygin told RFE/RL that he was punched in the eye while handcuffed during an interrogation by a separatist representing the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR).
Kanygin was detained on June 16, a day after he covered a rare rally outside the separatist leadership's offices by local citizens calling for an end to the war with in eastern Ukraine and the removal of rebel rocket launchers protesters said were drawing government forces' fire to civilian neighborhoods.
Kanygin spoke to RFE/RL on June 17, after his return to Russia. He said that he was accused of illegal drug use, spying for Ukraine and the United States, and working on territory controlled by the separatists without accreditation.
Novaya Gazeta quoted Kanygin as saying one of the separatist security officers who questioned him "pointed a pistol at me and said that if I moved, he would shoot me."
Kanygin said he was then asked which side he was on in the conflict between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian government forces, which has killed more than 6,400 people since April 2014.
"I said I am for peace. At that moment, he punched me in the eye," Kanygin said.
Kanygin told RFE/RL that the men who held and questioned him had served as Ukrainian Security Service personnel before the conflict broke out.
He said he had applied for accreditation with the separatist authorities several days earlier, but was not granted accreditation and did not know why.
Kanygin was the first Russian journalist to interview two men who were detained last month by Ukrainian forces and who Kyiv says are members of the Russian military.
In their interview, Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev said that they were on a reconnaissance mission for Russia's military when they were captured, contradicting Moscow's claim that they were not active servicemen.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev had served in the military but were not employed by the state at the time of their capture.
Despite mounting evidence, Russian President Vladimir Putin denies accusations by Kyiv and the West that Moscow has provided weapons, training, and personnel to the rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Aleksandrov and Yerofeyev have been charged with involvement in "terrorist activity," and a Kyiv court on May 22 ordered them to be placed in pretrial detention until July 19.
Ukrainian banker wanted by Kyiv arrested in Germany:
German authorities have announced the arrest of a Ukrainian banker wanted on an international arrest warrant alleging financial crimes in Ukraine.
Brandenburg state prosecutor Juergen Suelldorf, who is handling the extradition request, said on June 17 that Boris Tymonkin was arrested on June 14 at the Schoenefeld airport outside Berlin after arriving on a flight from Istanbul.
German police said Ukraine accuses the 63-year-old Tymonkin of defrauding the state of 281 million euros ($315 million).
Police added that he was being sought by Interpol on a Ukrainian warrant.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry says the warrant was issued last month in relation to his suspected participation in a criminal organization headed by another wanted businessman, Serhiy Kurchenko.
Kurchenko, a major player in Ukraine's natural-gas industry under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, fled Ukraine after Yanukovych was ousted. (AP)
EU extends sanctions on Russia:
By RFE/RL
Meeting in Brussels, European Union ambassadors have agreed to extend economic sanctions on Russia by another six months to the end of January 2016, and prolong an investment ban on Crimea for another year.
EU foreign ministers are expected to approve the six-month extension of the economic sanctions hitting Russia's energy, financial, and military sector at a meeting in Luxembourg on June 22.
The Crimea measures, prohibiting EU companies from investing and importing from the peninsula, can be given green light already on June 19.
The sanctions were imposed for one year in July 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March and its alleged support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
In March, EU heads of government decided that the duration of the restrictive measures against Russia would be linked to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreement.
French, German, Ukrainian, Russian FMs To Meet In Paris Next Week
Paris says the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia are set to hold talks on June 23 over the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on June 17 that the ministers would in particular discuss the implementation of a cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk in February.
During a telephone call on June 17, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, "stressed the importance of an immediate cessation of hostilities in east Ukraine and especially the shelling of villages and civilian infrastructure."
The call comes a day after Kyiv reported the death of two servicemen as a fresh round of European-mediated talks with pro-Moscow rebels failed to break the deadlock over the future status of its separatist-controlled eastern regions.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels has killed more than 6,400 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.