Russian state newspaper Izvestia says considered one of its freelance reporters has been killed in a drone strike close to the Russian-occupied metropolis of Donetsk in japanese Ukraine.
Moscow accused Ukraine’s navy of intentionally concentrating on Alexander Martemyanov. Ukraine has not commented.
Izvestia mentioned a civilian car carrying Martemyanov had been struck because it travelled on a freeway in a Russian-occupied zone.
4 different media employees have been reportedly injured in the identical assault.
“The Ukrainian military launched a drone strike on a civilian automotive carrying Izvestia’s freelance correspondent Alexander Martemyanov,” the information outlet reported on its Telegram channel.
“The automotive was situated removed from the road of contact.”
The car had been getting back from masking shelling within the Russian-held metropolis of Horlivka when it was hit, Russia’s state Ria information company mentioned.
Two Ria correspondents, each male, and two journalists from native outlet Bloknot Donetsk, each feminine, have been additionally within the car and have been handled in hospital for accidents, Russian media report.
Martemyanov, who had been working for Izvestia since 2014, was wounded final 12 months in a Ukrainian assault on Donetsk metropolis however had returned to work after his restoration, his paper says.
Russian international ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova referred to as the incident “deliberate homicide”.
In an announcement, she described it as “one other brutal crime in a sequence of bloody atrocities” carried out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s authorities.
The EU blocked Russian shops – together with Izvestia and Ria – in Could, saying they “unfold and help the Russian propaganda and warfare of aggression in opposition to Ukraine”.
Earlier than Martemyanov’s dying, the Worldwide Federation of Journalists mentioned at least 21 journalists had been killed in Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion started in February 2022.
