REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MOSCOW -- Two Russian journalists held for a week after being detained by pro-government forces in eastern Ukraine were released Sunday and flew to Moscow.

Speaking to reporters in the Russian capital, the two journalists for website LifeNews denied claims -- repeated last week by the State Department in Washington -- that they had been carrying anti-aircraft missiles when detained.

Reporter Oleg Sidyakin and cameraman Marat Saichenko were detained on May 18 near the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, where Ukrainian troops are fighting pro-Moscow rebels who have declared independence.

Russia's foreign ministry demanded their release but Ukrainian authorities said they were being held on suspicion of aiding the rebels and the State Department said they had reportedly been carrying man-portable air-defence systems, or MANPADS.

Saichenko said Sunday that they first saw the MANPADS after their detention, as they were being loaded into a helicopter to fly to Kiev for questioning.

"They loaded the MANPADS with us and then started to claim that they were allegedly found with us," he was quoted as saying by Interfax.

The two were released in the early hours of Sunday and -- in a bizarre twist -- first flown to Chechnya's capital Grozny where they met with strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

It was unclear what role Kadyrov may have played in their release but the reporters thanked him on their return to Moscow.

"We were in his house, sitting in the kitchen. The first thing that Ramzan Kadyrov did was feed us dinner, drink tea and listen to us," Saichenko said.

The crisis in Ukraine has seen several Russian, Ukrainian and Western journalists detained by both pro-Moscow rebels and government troops.

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