Near Armiansk, gunmen seized all equipment in Italian journalists

Near Armiansk, men in the Berkut uniform took away all equipment from the filming crew of the Italian ТК SKY TG 24. The filming crew — two journalists, fixer and driver – were detained at the checkpoint on the highway Kherson-Armiansk.

The operators wanted to record some footage but were forbidden from doing so, as the gunmen demanded to show a license or accreditation in Crimea. After that the filming crew moved along and started filming general views. An armed group with assault rifles and other weapons approached them on car. These were men in camouflage without any insignia (as a rule, this is the way Russian gunmen move around Crimea) and men in Berkut uniform. They started to threaten the journalists. The journalists offered to erase all footage and leave, but the armed men did not agree.

After the gunmen seized all the journalists' equipment: camera batteries, the memory cards with the footage, the streaming device, and 2 laptops. Currently, the filming crew is free and stays around Armiansk.