"The police explained the detention of Roman Tsymbaliuk and his cameraman with the need to verify the circumstances regarding and the identity of detainees. The police filed no charges were filed against Roman Tsymbaliuk and the cameraman," Kyrylych said.
He added that Ukrainian Consul Hennady Breskalenko arrived at the police station to get in touch with Tsymbaliyk and Borodin.
As UNIAN reported earlier, a Ukrainian journalist, UNIAN correspondent Roman Tsymbaliuk and 1+1 TV channel cameraman Mykyta Borodin were detained by Moscow police today, March 21, along with their interviewee, a post-graduate student of Moscow State University Zakhar Sarapulov.
Read alsoMoscow police release UNIAN correspondent, 1+1 cameramanAfter three hours spent at a police station, they were released.
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," Tsymbaliuk said.
Read alsoUNIAN news agency considers unacceptable detention of its employees in RussiaThe 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.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said the detention of Ukrainian journalists was a “provocation” on the part of Russian authorities.
