The recent murder of Russian journalists in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) is a part of systematic and orderly "work" of Ukraine to "clean" the information space, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
"For Kiev regime, of course, journalists have become a target. They are simply being hunted. That is obvious. That [attack on Russian journalists in the LPR] was not a simple attack, which [Kiev] perhaps needed like other attacks, carried out in these days in relation to contacts and the negotiation process in Riyadh. This is systematic and orderly 'work,' which Kiev regime conducts to clean the information space," Zakharova told Radio Sputnik.
Zakharova said that during terms of previous Ukrainian presidents, Kiev authorities cleaned the information space through censorship, closing media and pushing away the unwanted. Then they turned to force methods, encouraging murders, avoiding investigation of murders, forceful capture of journalists, attacks on editorial offices, and then - to direct murders, committed under the auspices of Kiev regime, Zakharova said.
On Monday, LPR head Leonid Pasechnik said that six people, including three media workers, had been killed as a result of artillery shelling of the Kremensky municipal district by the Ukrainian forces.
Moreover, on Wednesday, Russia's Channel One broadcaster announced that its military correspondent Anna Prokofieva died on duty in the Belgorod region, while cameraman Dmitry Volkov was seriously injured in the Kursk region, the acting governor said.
The Russian Investigation Committee opened a criminal case on the signs of such crimes as "murder" and "prevention of legal activity of journalists." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian journalists died as a result of targeted fire and that Ukraine specifically wanted to kill them.