Russian journalist killed in east Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia – A journalist with Russian public television has been shot dead in east Ukraine where pro-Moscow separatists are battling Ukrainian forces, the media worker’s employer Channel One said Monday.

Anatoly Klyan, a 68-year-old cameraman, was among a group of Russian journalists on a reporting trip with the insurgents, the TV channel said.

“Once on site, shots rang out from the soldiers’ side. Anatoly Klyan was mortally wounded in the stomach,” said the channel.

The driver of the bus transporting the journalists was wounded and in hospital on Monday morning, said a reporter from Russian news channel Rossiya 24.

Klyan had worked 40 years for the Russian channel and had carried out several missions in difficult conditions, his employer said.

On June 17, two members of a Russian television crew were killed in the ex-Soviet state’s separatist east. They were the first Russian media workers confirmed to have died in eastern Ukraine since fighting erupted there in mid-April.

Italian photographer Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian assistant Andrei Mironov were killed also killed in the restive region in late May. – Rappler.com