Ukrainian Prosecutor’s General Office blames militia for TV journalist’s death

The Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine has filed a criminal case upon the death of 10 people including Russian TV journalist, who was working for the All-Russia Television and Radio Company (VGTRK), according to a statement published on the authority’s official website.

“The prosecution authorities have filed criminal proceedings upon the death of ten people including three Ukrainian servicemen, six Ukrainian civilians and a citizen of the Russian Federation, who was working for VGTRK’s ‘Rossiya-1’ channel,” the message says.

“It has been established that June 17, 2014, during the counter-terrorism operation near the city of Luhansk the terrorists used fire guns and mortars to carry out a shooting attack on a consolidated military unit,” the prosecutor’s office noted. “Upon this fact, the prosecutor’s office has filed criminal proceedings for an offense under Part 3, Article 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (terrorist attack, which led to people’s deaths).”

On Tuesday, June 17, VGTRK’s special correspondent in Ukraine Igor Kornelyuk, sound engineer Anton Voloshin and cameraman Viktor Denisov got under mortar fire near Metallist village in the outskirts of Luhansk. The journalists were making a report about members of the local self-defence forces who were helping the local residents to leave the area of military hostilities.

The journalists had the insignia of press workers on their clothes. One of the shells burst literally under the reporters’ feet. Igor Kornelyuk was rushed to a hospital in Luhansk with serious wounds but the doctors could not save him. Nothing was known about the fate of sound engineer Anton Voloshin for several hours until the only surviving member of the camera crew - cameraman Viktor Denisov - finally identified Anton’s body.