The Broadcast Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all U.S. civilian international broadcasting, condemned what it called the targeting of independent journalists in Russia-annexed Crimea.
"The charges being considered against Semena are baseless and are aimed only at silencing independent voices and dissent," BBG CEO and Director John Lansing said. "Threats to the free practice of journalism must neither be made nor tolerated by any government."
"Journalism is not a crime," BBG Chairman Jeff Shell said. "Reporters from RFE/RL and indeed all media outlets must be allowed to do their work in Crimea without fear of intimidation or arrest."
Russia says received Ukraine's request on Savchenko repatriation:
By RFE/RL
The Russian Justice Ministry says Ukraine has requested documents required to repatriate Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko, whose imprisonment in Russia on murder charges has drawn international condemnation.
Russian news agencies on April 20 quoted the ministry's press office as saying that the Ukrainian Justice Ministry asked for paperwork related to Savchenko's possible transfer to serve out her 22-year sentence in Ukraine.
The ministry said a court would consider the issue of repatriating Savchenko, who was sentenced on March 22 on charges that included complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Russia's state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Savchenko, 34, says she was seized in eastern Ukraine in June 2014 while fighting with a volunteer battalion against Russia-backed separatists, and taken to Russia illegally.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on April 19 that Kyiv and Moscow have agreed on a possible framework to free Savchenko, who was elected in absentia to Ukraine's parliament in October 2014 and has become a national hero back home.
The Kremlin said Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed by phone the "fate" of Savchenko and two Russians sentenced by a Ukrainian court this week on charges of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. (w/TASS, Interfax, RIA Novosti, Reuters, AP)
Kyiv says three soldiers killed:
Ukraine says three of its soldiers have been killed in the country’s east -- the heaviest toll reported in the region in nearly two months.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on April 20 that the soldiers died in a mortar attack on the government-held village of Mayorsk, located some 35 kilometers north of Donetsk.
He said five soldiers were also wounded over the previous 24 hours in separate incidents along the 500-kilometer front splitting the separatist-held regions of Luhansk and Donetsk from the rest of the country.
The news comes amid rising concerns about cease-fire violations in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,100 since April 2014. (AFP, Interfax)