At entrance to Crimea "Dozhd" journalist was detained and questioned by Russian gunmen

On March 13, in Armiansk the Russian gunmen detained the reporter of the Russian TV channel «Dozhd» Rodion Chepel, took away his equipment and pressured him. He came to Crimea as a private person from Kyiv — he did not have his journalist ID and was on vacation. As his flight to Crimea was canceled he hired a driver to get there. In Armiansk on Perekop land strip that connects Crimea with the mainland, the car was stopped at the checkpoint by Russian gunmen. They took all of Chepel's video equipment and his phone, took him to the road police booth on the side of the road, deleted all of his photos and video footage.

When they figured he was a «Dozhd» employee they took him to the basement, while informing that this was the place where they had been holding the AvtoMaidan activists. The armed men were aggressive and would not answer any questions. They kept him in the basement for an hour and a half and then let him out but told him to go back to Kyiv. They stopped one of the cars of refugees leaving the peninsula and made him join the people in that car.