Italian police arrested Ukrainian citizen Vitaly Markiv on June 30 on murder charges related to the 2014 killing of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli during the siege of Sloviansk, according to local media reports and a statement from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Office.
The 31-year-old Rocchelli came to Ukraine in May 2014 to cover the conflict in east Ukraine. He was killed on May 24 together with his interpreter Andrei Mironov, who was a Russian citizen.
Andriy Antonyschak, a member of the Bloc Petro Poroshenko faction and coordinator of the Kulchytsky battalion, told 112 channel that Markiv is deputy platoon commander in his battalion. He added that Markiv was arrested on June 30.
Markiv, 27, is a native of Ternopil Oblast. He told STB news channel in April 2016 that his family moved to Italy when he was 16 years old, and that he formerly worked as a DJ in Italy.
In 2013, Markiv returned to Ukraine to take part in the 2014 EuroMaidan protests, and afterwards joined a volunteer battalion of the National Guard.
The Court of Pavia ordered Markiv’s arrest at the request of local prosecutors.
Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor Eugene Enin said on July 1 that he “was surprised” by Markiv’s arrest.
Enin said that Ukrainian and Italian prosecutors were cooperating on the investigation of the Italian journalist. Enin added that according to Ukrainian investigators, Rocchelli was killed by fire that came from territories that were then under the control of Russia-backed separatists.
Enin said that the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office already filed a request to Italian prosecutors to prove “substantiated evidence of Markiv’s guilt or to immediately release him.”
