List of journalists killed during the Russo-Ukrainian War

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At least 11 civilian journalists or media workers have been killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War as of 18 March 2022. Five have been Russian, three Ukrainian, one Italian, one American, and one Irish.

The early stages of the War in Donbas in 2014 were particularly deadly for journalists. Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli and his interpreter, Russian activist Andrei Mironov, were the first journalists killed in the war, struck by Ukrainian mortar fire in May 2014. Their killings prompted international outcry and led to the trial, conviction, and eventual exoneration of Ukrainian National Guard officer Vitalii Markiv in Italian courts, on charges of ordering the strike. In the following four months, four more Russian journalists—Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, Anatoly Klyan, and Andrey Stenin—were killed by Ukrainian fire, all while in the company of Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic or Luhansk People's Republic forces. One Ukrainian journalist, Serhiy Nikolayev, was killed by a shell in an incident that both sides in the conflict blamed on each other.

Yevhenii Sakun was the first journalist killed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a victim of a Russian airstrike on the Kyiv TV Tower. Twelve days later, Russian soldiers fired on the car of American documentarian Brent Renaud, killing him. Irish photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski and his Ukrainian colleague Oleksandra Kuvshynova were killed by Russian soldiers the next day, also while in their car.

In addition, at least five journalists have been killed while serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the Russian separatist forces in Donbas.

Start of war in Donbas, 2014–2015 [edit]

The early stages of the War in Donbas saw the deaths of seven civilian journalists and media workers,[1] most of them Russians covering separatist fighters in the region.

Andrea Rocchelli and Andrei Mironov[edit]

caption
Andrei Mironov

Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and Russian journalist and activist Andrei Mironov,[names 1] who was serving as Rocchelli's fixer and interpreter,[2][3] were killed on 24 May 2014 near the city of Slovyansk.[2] They, French reporter William Roguelon, and a local driver were fired upon on the way to their car. Roguelon stated that they were then targeted with 40 to 60 mortars.[4][5] In July 2019, an Italian court convicted Vitalii Markiv, an Italian-Ukrainian dual citizen and an officer in the National Guard of Ukraine, of directing the strike that killed Rocchelli and Mironov.[6] Markiv's conviction was overturned in November 2020,[7] a decision made final by the Supreme Court of Cassation in December 2021.[8]

Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin[edit]

Igor Kornelyuk[names 2] and Anton Voloshin,[names 3] correspondent and sound engineer respectively for Russian state-owned broadcasting company VGTRK,[9][10] were struck by Ukrainian mortar shells on 17 June 2014 while filming a separatist roadblock[11] in Metalist, Slovianoserbsk Raion. Voloshin died instantly,[10] while Kornelyuk died later that day.[9]

Anatoly Klyan[edit]

Anatoly Klyan,[names 4] a camera operator for Russian Channel One, was killed by Ukrainian soldiers while traveling with a group of protesting soldiers' mothers on 30 June 2014 in Donetsk region.[12][13] The trip had been organized by separatists and the driver was wearing camouflage.[12] Klyan continued to film the attack until he grew too weak.[12]

Andrey Stenin[edit]

Andrey Stenin,[names 5] a Russian photojournalist and correspondent for several Russian and international news agencies, disappeared on 5 August 2014 while embedded with Russian-backed forces in Donetsk.[14] He was confirmed dead on 3 September 2014.[15] He was posthumously awarded the Russian Order of Courage by Vladimir Putin.[16]

Serhiy Nikolayev[edit]

Serhiy Nikolayev,[names 6] a photojournalist with the Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya, died along with soldier Mykola "Tank" Flerko during the shelling of the village of Pisky on 28 February 2015.[19] Nikolayev was wearing a bulletproof vest marked "PRESS".[20] Both sides in the war blamed each other.[21] Nikolayev was later awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.[18]

Russian invasion of Ukraine, 2022[edit]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to the deaths of four civilian journalists as of 18 March 2022, two of them Ukrainian and the other two international.[22]

Yevhenii Sakun[edit]

The strike on the Kyiv TV Tower

Yevhenii Sakun,[names 7] a photojournalist for Ukrainian TV channel LIVE and correspondent with EFE, was killed by an attack on the Kyiv TV Tower on 1 March 2022,[23][25] in what Reporters Without Borders described as a "precision strike" on the facility.[26]

Brent Renaud[edit]

caption
Brent Renaud

Brent Renaud, a journalist for The New York Times and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker, was shot dead by Russian soldiers while at a checkpoint in Irpin on 13 March 2022.[27][28] Renaud, who was known for his work depicting refugees and deportees, had been filming evacuating refugees,[29] according to his colleage Juan Arredondo.[30]

Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra Kuvshynova [edit]

Pierre "Zak" Zakrzewski,[names 8] an Irish photojournalist for Fox News, and Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova,[names 9] a Ukrainian freelancer working with Fox, were killed on 14 March 2022 when their vehicle came under fire in Horenka, Kyiv Oblast.[33][34] British journalist Benjamin Hall, also of Fox, was wounded in the same attack.[35]

Zakrzewski, 55, had worked for Fox in the Iraq War, War in Afghanistan, and Syrian civil war,[36] and had received Fox's "Unsung Hero" employee award for his role in evacuating Afghan freelancers and their families after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.[37] Kuvshynova, 24,[36] had been guiding Fox crews and assisting with newsgathering.[38]

Journalists killed while serving in the military [edit]

Three Ukrainians and two separatists have been killed while serving as military journalists or while serving as soldiers independent of their work as journalists. They have generally not been counted in lists of journalists killed in the war.[1]

  • Sergei Korenchenkov and Andrei Vyachalo, correspondents with the Donetsk People Republic militia's Information Corps, disappeared alongside Andrey Stenin on 5 August 2014 (see § Andrey Stenin). Ten days after Stenin's body was found, pro-Russian newspaper Golos Sevastopolya reported that Korenchenkov and Vyachalo's had been found at the same time as his.[39]
  • Oleh Zadoyanchuk, a soldier in the 12th Territorial Defence Battalion and journalist with state news agency Ukrinform, was killed by Russian artillery shelling on 4 September 2014.[40]
  • Dmytro Labutkin,[names 10] a military journalist with the Sevastopol TV channel Briz prior to Russia's annexation of Crimea, died on 16 February 2015 during the Battle of Debaltseve.[41][42]
  • Viktor Dudar,[names 11] the defense correspondent for the Lviv-based newspaper Expres and a volunteer paratrooper, was fatally shot by Russian soldiers while fighting in Mykolaiv. His death was announced on 7 March 2022.[43] He was not working as a journalist at the time;[24] he had re-enlisted in the military on 24 February, having previously served in Donbas from 2014 to 2015. He was among the first Ukrainian soldiers killed in the invasion.[44]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Russian: Андре́й Никола́евич Миро́нов, also transliterated Andrey
  2. ^ Russian: Игорь Владимирович Корнелюк
  3. ^ Russian: Антон Дмитриевич Волошин
  4. ^ Russian: Анатолий Сергеевич Клян
  5. ^ Russian: Андрей Алексеевич Стенин
  6. ^ Ukrainian: Сергій Владиславович Ніколаєв, first name also transliterated Sergii or Sergey, last name also transliterated Nikolaiev or Nikolaev[17][18]
  7. ^ Ukrainian: Євгеній Сакун,[23] also transliterated Evgeny Sakin[24]
  8. ^ /ˈzækʃɛvsk/[31]
  9. ^ Ukrainian: Олександра Кувшинова,[32] also transliterated Kuvshinova[31]
  10. ^ Ukrainian: Лабуткін Дмитро Віталійович
  11. ^ Ukrainian: Віктор Дудар[43]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "8 Journalists and Media Workers Killed in Ukraine between 2014 and 2015". Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Who killed Andrea Rocchelli?". Euronews. 25 July 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  3. ^ Lally, Kathy; Englund, Will (30 May 2014). "Remembering Andrei Mironov, the interpreter who tried to save Russia". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  4. ^ Institute of Mass Information (1 October 2014). "Французький фотограф поранений під Слов'янськом - Інститут Масової Інформації". Archived from the original on 1 October 2014.
  5. ^ Reporters Without Borders (26 May 2014). "Italian journalist and Russian fixer killed in eastern Ukraine". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  6. ^ Englund, Will (27 January 2020). "Who killed two journalists in Ukraine? And why?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Ukrainian Ex-Fighter Acquitted In 2014 Killing Of Italian Journalist Returns To Kyiv". Radio Free Europe. 4 November 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Італійський суд остаточно виправдав нацгвардійця Марківа" [Italian court finally acquitted Markiv of the National Guard]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian and Russian). 9 December 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  9. ^ a b Committee to Protect Journalists. "Igor Kornelyuk". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  10. ^ a b Committee to Protect Journalists. "Anton Voloshin". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  11. ^ "Russian reporter killed by mortar attack in eastern Ukraine". Reuters. 17 June 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  12. ^ a b c "Russian journalist killed in Ukraine as gunmen fire on media bus". The Guardian. The Associated Press. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  13. ^ Culzac, Natasha (30 June 2014). "Anatoly Klyan death: Russian cameraman fatally shot in Ukraine 'by government forces'". The Independent. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  14. ^ Greenslade, Roy (11 August 2014). "Russian agency photographer goes missing in Ukraine". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  15. ^ Committee to Protect Journalists (3 September 2014). "Russian photojournalist Andrei Stenin killed in Ukraine". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  16. ^ "Andrei Stenin has been posthumously awarded the Order of Courage". Russian Presidential Executive Office. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  17. ^ "President appointed scholarships to the children of journalists Serhiy Nikolayev and Dmytro Labutkin fallen in Donbas". president.gov.ua. Archived from the original on 20 August 2015.
  18. ^ a b "Sergey Nikolaev, photographer of the newspaper "Today" was awarded the title of "national Hero of Ukraine (posthumously)". Slava Ukraine (in English, Ukrainian, and French).
  19. ^ "News photographer from Segodnya newspaper killed by shell in Pisky". Ukrainian Independent Information Agency. 28 February 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  20. ^ Reporters Without Borders (28 February 2015). "Ukrainian photographer killed near Donetsk". Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  21. ^ "Ukraine's pro-Russia rebels claim to withdraw, Kyiv skeptical". Deutsche Welle. 1 March 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  22. ^ "4 Journalists and Media Workers Killed in Ukraine in 2022". Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  23. ^ a b Hainey, Fionnula (2 March 2022). "Cameraman one of five killed in Kyiv TV tower missile strike". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  24. ^ a b Marlowe, Lara (12 March 2022). "Death in Ukraine: 'It is better to be the widow of a hero than the wife of a coward'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  25. ^ International Federation of Journalists (3 March 2022). "Ukraine: Cameraman Yevhenii Sakun killed in TV tower bombing". Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  26. ^ Reporters Without Borders (5 March 2022). "RSF refers Russian strikes on four Ukrainian TV towers to International Criminal Court". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  27. ^ Bowman, Verity (13 March 2022). "US journalist Brent Renaud 'killed in Ukraine'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  28. ^ "Acclaimed filmmaker Brent Renaud shot, killed in Ukraine". The Associated Press. 13 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  29. ^ Traub, Alex (13 March 2022). "Brent Renaud, Crusading Filmmaker, Is Killed at 50". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  30. ^ "'They started shooting at us' - US journalist's colleague". BBC News. 13 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  31. ^ a b "Fox News mourns Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra Kuvshynova". Fox News. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022 – via YouTube.
  32. ^ "Під Києвом вбили молоду українську журналістку" [A young Ukrainian journalist was killed near Kyiv] (in Ukrainian). 15 March 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  33. ^ "Two journalists killed in attack while reporting in Ukraine". ITV News. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  34. ^ "Taoiseach pays tribute to Irish citizen killed while reporting for Fox News near Kyiv". TheJournal.ie. 3 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  35. ^ "British journalist hospitalised in Ukraine while reporting for Fox News". ITV News. 14 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  36. ^ a b "Fox News' Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra Kuvshinova killed in Kyiv". BBC News. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  37. ^ Wallace, Danielle; Norman, Greg (15 March 2022). "Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski killed in Ukraine". Fox News. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  38. ^ Wulfsohn, Joseph (15 March 2022). "Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra 'Sasha' Kuvshinova assisting Fox News in Ukraine killed in attack". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  39. ^ Fitzpatrick, Catherine A. (30 September 2014). "Andrei Stenin and His Fellow Travelers: How Russian State Media Help Fight the War Against Ukraine". The Interpreter. Institute of Modern Russia. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  40. ^ "Ukrinform journalist Oleh Zadoyanchuk killed in Donbas". Ukrinform. 6 September 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  41. ^ Institute of Mass Information (22 March 2015). "Death of military journalist Dmytro Labutkin confirmed". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  42. ^ Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (23 March 2015). "Death confirmed of Ukrainian military journalist at Debaltseve". Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  43. ^ a b "На фронті загинув львівський журналіст" [Journalist from Lviv has died at war]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian, English, and Russian). 7 March 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  44. ^ Fadel, Leila (9 March 2022). "The first of Ukraine's fallen soldiers are starting to come home". National Public Radio. Retrieved 17 March 2022.