MOSCOW, August 12 (RAPSI) - The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a case on the kidnapping of Russian journalist Andrei Stenin in southeastern Ukraine, official spokesman Vladimir Markin announced Tuesday.

Contact with Rossiya Segodnya photo journalist Andrei Stenin who had been working in Lugansk, Donetsk, Slavyansk and other eastern Ukrainian cities since May 13 was lost on August 5.

According to Markin, investigators are probing into the possibility of the Ukrainian army and national security services involvement in Stenin’s disappearance. An informed source told RIA Novosti that the journalist was allegedly arrested by Ukrainian security officers and is presumably being held at the Ukrainian Security Service in Zaporizhia. However, the Ukrainian Security Service in Zaporizhia claims that they did not detain the correspondent and that there are no Russian media representatives being held in the region.

“Within the criminal investigation and until the circumstances of Andrei Stenin’s disappearance are clarified, Russian criminal procedural law allows investigators to request the legal assistance of the competent authorities in Ukraine,” the statement says.