MOSCOW, June 11 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case on the capture of Zvezda TV network journalists Andrei Sushenkov and Anton Malyshev in Ukraine, said the official committee spokesman, Vladimir Markin.

The journalists from the Defense Ministry’s Zvezda channel, who went to Ukraine to cover the inauguration of Petro Poroshenko, disappeared after being stopped by the National Guard near Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine. It later turned out that they were arrested on suspicion of espionage.

Sushenkov and Malyshev said after their release that their prison conditions were very bad: They had no beds to sleep on, they were threatened and told not to talk, and the temperature in their cell was “like in a steam bath, plus 45-50 Celsius.”

According to Markin, the journalists were also regularly beaten.

On Monday night, Sushenkov and Malyshev were hooded and taken from their cell to the border, where they were turned over to Russia.

Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin said this Wednesday that those who are guilty of committing military crimes in eastern Ukraine will be punished even if they hide “at the bottom of the ocean.”