Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti reported on Thursday that one of its correspondents in the contested Zaporizhzhia region was killed by a Ukrainian drone strike.
“RIA Novosti military correspondent Ivan Zuev was killed in the Zaporizhzhia region and his colleague Yuri Voitkevich was seriously injured,” the agency said, noting that the journalist worked for Kremlin-controlled RIA Novosti for a number of years and had received several state awards.
The state agency added that Zuev died “on assignment, as a result of a strike by a Ukrainian drone,” in a part of the Ukrainian region that is currently occupied by Moscow’s forces.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has expressed condolences on Zuev’s death and wished Voitkevich a speedy recovery.
Journalists from both Ukraine and Russia have been either caught up in the fighting or targeted by the Kremlin’s forces since the beginning of Russia’s three-plus-year invasion.
In April, the body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died while in Russian captivity, was returned to Ukraine. Her remains were transferred during a prisoner exchange and identified through DNA testing.
The 27-year-old journalist was captured by Russian forces in August 2023 in Enerhodar, also in Zaporizhzhia, when that city was occupied in the early days of the invasion.
A number of foreign journalists have been slain during the fighting.
Ryan Evans, a security advisor for the British news service Reuters was killed in August of 2024 when his hotel in Kramatorsk, in Donetsk, came under a Russian air attack.
Just two weeks ago, AFP reported, French photojournalist Antoni Lallican was killed on assignment near the front line in the Donetsk region, while his Ukrainian colleague Georgiy Ivanchenko was wounded in the same attack.
Rights groups say almost two dozen journalists have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Among them also was AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed by rocket fire in 2023.
Reporters Without Borders wrote earlier this year that at least 47 Ukrainian and foreign journalists have been injured by Russian fire while reporting on the invasion. In addition, the group reported in February, nineteen Ukrainian journalists had been arrested by Russian authorities in parts of occupied Ukrainian territories after they refused to collaborate with Moscow.