Russian reporter killed, another wounded near Ukraine front
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Ukrainian servicemen travelling near the front line, near the town of Vovchansk, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, on June 12.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - A Russian journalist covering the conflict in Ukraine for Russian state-controlled media was killed and another wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on June 13, Moscow’s NTV television said.
A Russian officer accompanying them was also wounded during the strike in Golmivskyi, a Russian-occupied village close to the front lines in the eastern Donetsk region.
“NTV journalists cameraman Valery Kozhin and NTV military correspondent Alexei Ivliyev were wounded. According to preliminary reports, the journalists were attacked by a drone,” NTV said.
The pair were taken to a hospital in the eastern city of Gorlivka to undergo surgery, but “Kozhin could not be saved”, the channel said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier accused Ukraine of “targeting” the reporters in the attack.
President Vladimir Putin said earlier in June that “at least 30” Russian journalists had died in the conflict.
AFP was not able to verify his claim.
Russian war correspondents frequently report alongside Russian troops on the front lines, where they present the fight as a “special military operation” in TV dispatches and praise Russian soldiers as “heroes”.
NTV is owned by Gazprom Media, the broadcast and media subsidiary of the state-run gas giant.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says it has verified the deaths of 15 journalists in Ukraine in 2022 and 2023.
