Moscow condemns Kiev’s ‘terrorist attacks’ on journalists
The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned Ukrainian attacks which killed three members of a news crew and injured several others in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Kursk Region on Monday. The incidents were further proof of Kiev’s “terrorist nature,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
According to Moscow, Ukrainian forces launched a “precision-guided artillery strike” on a civilian vehicle in the LPR marked as press transport on Monday. The attack claimed the lives of Aleksandr Fedorchak, a reporter for Izvestia; Andrey Panov, a cameraman for Zvezda TV; and their driver, Aleksandr Sirekli. Another Zvezda correspondent, Nikolai Goldin, was seriously wounded in the same incident.
In a separate attack on the same day, TASS reporter Mikhail Skuratov was injured by shrapnel while on assignment in the Sudzhanskiy district of Russia’s Kursk Region, which borders Ukraine.
“The Kiev regime has once again demonstrated its terrorist, savage nature,” Zakharova said in a statement early Tuesday morning. “The series of brutal reprisals against Russian journalists by Ukrainian neo-Nazis is yet another proof of their readiness to commit any crimes against the civilian population without hesitation, including media workers, who are protected under international humanitarian law as outlined in the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I.”
Zakharova accused Kiev of escalating attacks on civilians as a result of its failure to achieve military success. “The number of these terrorist attacks is increasing proportionally to the neo-Nazi regime’s growing understanding of its inability to inflict any damage on the Russian Armed Forces,” she added.
Moscow called on international bodies – including the Director-General of UNESCO, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – to issue strong condemnations.
“The continued cold-blooded killings of Russian media workers demand proper attention and response from international institutions,” Zakharova stated, warning that silence or evasive rhetoric would only “demonstrate their inability to uphold their mandates impartially.”
Zvezda TV reported that their crew was allegedly targeted by two projectiles fired from a US-supplied Ukrainian HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system. Moscow has repeatedly said that Kiev cannot operate such advanced systems without direct Western assistance.
