Ukrainian artillery attack kills 3 Russian journalists, others

A Ukrainian artillery strike on Monday killed at least six people, including three journalists in Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine.

The media outlets concerned confirmed that their journalists had been killed in the attack.

At the time of filing this report, there was no comment from Ukrainian officials.

According to Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-appointed governor of Luhansk region, the attack killed a journalist from Russia's Izvestia media outlet, Alexander Fedorchak, as well as camera operator Andrei Panov and driver Alexander Sirkeli working for Russian state television channel Zvezda.

Zvezda said its correspondent, Nikita Goldin, had been seriously wounded in the attack, which it described as a strike on a civilian vehicle.

Meanwhile, an ambassador-at-large for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Miroshnik, said there was evidence the journalists had been targeted.

“More and more details are emerging of the killing of these guys that point to the premeditated and terrorist nature of the strike on journalists and people alongside them,” he wrote on Telegram.

The media outlet, Izvestia said Fedorchak had gone into Luhansk region after reporting from the Kupiansk area in neighbouring Kharkiv region, one of the areas where Russian forces have made advances in recent months.

It will be recalled that a freelance reporter working for Izvestia was killed in Ukraine in January.

According to data provided earlier in the war by the Committee to Protect Journalists, no fewer than 15 journalists killed since Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It was gathered that almost all of the Luhansk region has been captured by Russian forces in the more than three-year-old war pitting Moscow against Kyiv.

Russian forces have reportedly concentrated on capturing the eastern Donbas, made up of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, after their initial drive failed to reach the capital Kyiv in the early stages of the invasion.