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Russian state newspaper Izvestia says one of its freelance reporters was killed in a drone strike near the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow has accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately targeting Alexander Martemyanov. Ukraine has not commented.
Izvestia said a civilian vehicle carrying Martemyanov was hit while traveling on a highway in a Russian-occupied area.
Five other media workers were reportedly injured in the same attack.
“The Ukrainian army launched a drone attack against a civilian car in which Izvestia’s independent correspondent Alexander Martemyanov was traveling,” the media outlet reported on its Telegram channel.
“The car was located far from the contact line.”
The vehicle was returning from covering a bombing raid on the Russian-controlled town of Gorlivka when it was hit, Russia’s state news agency RIA said.
Two RIA journalists were injured in the attack, the agency added.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the incident a “deliberate murder.”
In a statement, he described it as “another brutal crime in a series of bloody atrocities” carried out by the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The EU blocked Russian media – including Izvestia and RIA – in May, accusing them of allowing “the spread and support of Russian propaganda and the war of aggression against Ukraine.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 15 journalists have been killed since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
