U.S. journalist missing in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, say local police

Russell Bentley, a U.S. national, is missing in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, local police said on Friday, and a search is underway to try to find him.

Bentley, born in 1960, a self-declared supporter of Russian-backed forces in Ukraine whom Russian state media have described as a war correspondent, reportedly went missing on April 8, police in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region said in a statement.

The authorities did not provide details on his last known whereabouts or the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.