MOSCOW, June 18 (RAPSI) – An investigation was opened into the murder of Vesti correspondent Igor Kornelyuk near Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, the Investigative Committee spokesman, Vladimir Markin, said on Tuesday.

According to investigators, a film crew from Russia’s state-run VGTRK network was caught in mortar fire in the village of Mirny while filming refugees fleeing the troubled area near the border with Russia on Tuesday. Journalist Igor Kornelyuk was badly injured and later died of wounds in a Luhansk hospital.

The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic said the National Guard was delivering accurate fire near Luhansk. Cameraman Viktor Denisov, who was at the site of the tragedy, said that the TV crew were all wearing “Press” identifiers.

Ukrainian officials have not provided any version of the incident. Several Russian journalists came under sniper attack near the village of Vostochny, in the suburbs of Ukraine's eastern city of Slaviansk on Monday.

Reporters from the Ruptly news agency, Channel One and Rossiya-24 TV have reportedly been attacked over the past two weeks in the area where Kiev is continuing the military operation it started in mid-April to quell the protests of those who refused to support the new government.

Two Zvezda channel journalists were detained in Dnipropetrovsk last weekend, and released Monday in the second case of reporters from the channel being detained in the past two months.