A team of reporters from German newspaper Die Welt came under Russian Lancet drone attack while working in eastern Ukraine, according to journalist Ibrahim Naber, who described the incident in social media posts on Oct. 27 and 28.
The attack took place on Oct. 13 roughly 25 to 30 kilometers from the frontline, as the crew were preparing a segment on a Ukrainian mobile air defense unit.
Moments after completing an interview with a Ukrainian serviceman named Konstantin, he was killed by the drone. Another soldier, Ihor, sustained serious injuries and had to have his leg amputated, Naber said on Instagram.
In footage of the attack captured by cameraman Viktor Lysenko, a drone can be heard nearing the crew before a violent detonation engulfs the scene as Lysenko can be heard ushering the others to safety.
“We were a few meters away from the three-man crew when the drone hit… The soldiers had been out on duty, as on countless nights before, shooting down long-range drones that Russia uses to attack Ukrainian cities,” Naber wrote. “They saved many lives – before the attack hit them.”
A Welt producer, Ivan, suffered shrapnel wounds to the leg and underwent surgery as a result of the attack, while cameraman Lysenko and Naber sustained minor injuries.
The reporters were clearly marked as journalists during the shoot, according to a report in Die Welt.
“It was about 9.30pm local time, so already pitch black. We suddenly heard a noise and this noise sounded a bit like a car racing towards us,” Naber recalled in an interview with the German outlet.
“We couldn’t understand it at all at first, because these little drones sound completely different… and then before we could react, it hit directly into this military truck head on. There was a huge explosion, a huge pressure wave that hurled us all away.”
“I landed on the ground first. I reached for my head and I reached for my thigh. I checked to see if everything was still there… Then I just heard screams in Ukrainian, in English from Ivan and the producer… And then we tried to save ourselves,” he finished.
In his posts on social media, Naber launched a fundraiser to support the rehabilitation of Ihor, the soldier who lost his leg, saying “I guarantee that every euro will reach him.”
The incident underscores the mounting risks faced by frontline correspondents as drones with extended range make documenting the conflict increasingly perilous.
On Oct 23, journalist Olena Hramova and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin were killed in Kramatorsk by a Lancet drone which struck the vehicle they were traveling in.
At the beginning of October, it was reported that French photojournalist Antoni Lallican had been killed in a targeted Russian drone strike near the town of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region despite wearing a protective vest marked “PRESS.”
Lallican’s death was thought to be the first time a journalist has been killed by a drone in Ukraine, according to the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ).
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, at least 135 media workers have been killed, according to Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists.