Ukrainian court detains Russian journalist pending treason trial

AFP  |  Kherson (Ukraine) 

A ruled a from Russia's state-run agency, who is accused of treason, should be held in detention until his trial.

Vyshynsky, a Ukrainian national who received a Russian passport in 2015, was on Tuesday detained near his house in as Ukraine's security service raided RIA Novosti's offices there.

The case has sparked a fresh row between and Moscow, with on Wednesday saying it would do "everything to ensure its citizen is freed".

Vyshynsky denies the charges against him and his told journalists he would file an appeal against Thursday's ruling.

yesterday promised "retaliatory measures" condemning "repressive acts towards a who has always carried out his professional work honestly and conscientiously".

Both the EU and have said that while has the right to protect its national security, it must respect human and legal rights.

The the and Co-operation in (OSCE) and the Council of have expressed concern at the detention of Vyshynsky.

accused Vyshynsky of travelling to Crimea in 2014 to carry out "subversive" reporting to justify the peninsula's annexation by

The 51-year-old was also accused of collaborating with Russian-backed separatist groups in eastern where a conflict that broke out following Crimea's seizure has cost some 10,000 lives.

An said Russian-controlled media were being "used as tools in a hybrid war against Ukraine".

and its Western allies regularly accuse of using its for propaganda and incitement of separatist sentiment in Ukraine.

Ukraine ranks 101st out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by (RSF) as Russia came in at 148.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, May 18 2018. 02:50 IST