Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk, who has an official accreditation of the Russian Foreign Ministry, was detained in Moscow along with his interviewee, a graduate student who earlier flew a Ukrainian flag over the Moscow State University dorm.
”We found Zakhar, the hero who flew the Ukrainian flag over Moscow State University on the third anniversary of Crimea annexation. An excellent interview ended with police arrival,” the journalist wrote on Facebook.
”They took my documents, and now we are waiting for the arrival of the chief of the Moscow State University [campus] police,” he wrote.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation will look into the circumstances of the detention in Moscow of an UNIAN correspondent Roman Tsymbaliuk and 1+1 TV channel cameraman Mykyta Borodin, the ministry`s spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in her comments to UNIAN.
”We`ve just arrived from Japan, I`m not aware of this situation… I will now be looking into it and clearing things out,” Zakharova said, responding to an UNIAN`s question on the detention of their correspondent in Russia.
Zakharova did not answer any clarifying questions, once again referring to not being aware of the situation.
Earlier, a Ukrainian journalist, UNIAN correspondent Roman Tsymbaliuk and 1+1 TV channel cameraman Mykyta Borodin were detained by Moscow police.
As Tsymbaliuk said in a comment to UNIAN, he had been detained following his interview with Zakhar Sarapulov, a post-graduate student at the Faculty of History of the Moscow State University, who on March 18 flew a Ukrainian flag over the University dorm on the anniversary of Crimea annexation.
”After we recorded the interview, Zakhar took out the flag of Ukraine, and we also filmed it. Then the police approached and started checking our IDs. As a result, the police said that we had allegedly held a rally and, probably, shouted some sort of slogans; and now we are being taken to the police station located in the building of the Moscow State University. They took away our passports and accreditation papers,” Tsymbalyuk said.
The journalist states that detention is groundless.
”Under Russian law, they did not have the right to detain us. We were filming in a public place, out on the street, almost in the park,” he said.
