Two Stakhanov journalists abducted

Yevgeny Timofeyev             Yevgeny Shlyakhtin

There is still no contact with two Stakhanov journalists - Yevgeny Shlyakhtin and Yevgeny Timofeyev – who were abducted by Kremlin-backed militants from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.on July 31  

Shlyakhtin works for the Stakhanov city council and was seized from his workplace at around 2 p.m. He did initially answer calls and told friends that he is being held in the basement of a Stakhanov police building (under the control of the militants).  Since then he has not answered his phone.

There is also no contact with Timofeyev who works for Football Review.  The two men are good friends.

There is still no sign of Yury Lelyavsky, a Lviv journalist working freelance for ZIK,  He was seized on July 25 in the Luhansk oblast,   Lelyavsky has already been held hostage once, in Slovyansk.  He was released, together with journalists Serhiy Leftner and Artem Deineha, in early May.