KIEV (AFP) -- A Russian state television reporter died of his wounds after being rushed to hospital in Ukraine's restive eastern region of Lugansk, the hospital's chief doctor told AFP.

"He was unconscious when he arrived and died on his way to the operating room," Lugansk District Clinical Hospital doctor Fedir Solyanyk said by telephone.

The doctor said Igor Kornelyuk, a reporter with the Russian state media group VGTRK, received serious stomach wounds after being hit by shrapnel from what appeared to be either a mine or a grenade.

A separatist Lugansk spokesman told AFP by telephone that Kornelyuk and his sound technician, Anton Voloshin, were caught in the middle of a grenade launcher attack staged by Ukranian forces in the Russian border region.

The separatist spokesman said the fate of Voloshin and that of about 15 rebel fighters who were with the Russian television crew at the time remained unclear.

Ukrainian security officials issued no immediate comment.