Journalists injured by Ukrainian missile attack

31 Oct, 2023 22:57 / Updated 10 months ago
Three correspondents working in Donetsk for the Russian outlet Izvestia have sustained shrapnel wounds, their employer said

Three journalists with the Russian newspaper Izvestia were injured in a Ukrainian attack on Donetsk on Tuesday. 

According to Izvestia, correspondent Evgeny Bykovsky sustained a shrapnel wound to the chest and will undergo surgery. His colleague Aleksey Poltoranin was wounded in both legs, while Aleksandr Martemyanov was wounded in the chest and abdomen, but their injuries are “not life-threatening.” 

Izvestia reported that the Ukrainian troops used multiple rocket launchers to strike a train station, where fuel tanks had caught fire. 

Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) leader Denis Pushilin wrote on Telegram that the journalists are among 14 civilians who were hurt during the shelling of the city of Donetsk on Tuesday. He added that two first responders were injured while putting out a fire started by an earlier attack. Several buildings were damaged as well, Pushilin said. 

Donetsk, which sits close to the frontline, has repeatedly come under attack over the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Speaking at a Security Council briefing on Friday, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said that Kiev had been using Western-supplied munitions to “attack civilian infrastructure” in Donbass and elsewhere. 

Polyansky showed what he said was part of a US-made HIMARS missile that hit a government building in Kherson last September, killing three people and injuring several others.