BNT TEAM AGGRESSIVELY SEARCHED IN CRIMEA

A team of BNT journalists has been subject to aggressive search upon entering the Crimean capital Simferopol, reported the BNT special envoy in Ukraine, Mario Gavrilov, for the BNT news programme “Around the world and at Home”.

Upon entering the territory of the autonomous area of Crimea, the BNT team was stopped for a check and searched by people in masks and armed with Kalashnikov rifles, some wearing Russian insignia. The search was conducted rather aggressively and the Bulgarian journalists’ luggage was taken out of the car and placed on the ground. Their bulletproof vests and helmets, provided by BNT, were seized.

Mario Gavrilov said there were reports that three Ukrainian journalists were kidnapped a day earlier. Their vehicle was stopped at the same Crimea checkpoint and the journalists were abducted. There is no further information about what happened to them afterwards.