A group of Russian journalists have been attacked by a Ukrainian drone in Zaporozhye Region, the Russian military has reported. Boris Maksudov, a reporter with Rossiya-24 TV channel, was wounded in the attack, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The reporter received non-life-threatening injuries and was promptly evacuated from the scene, receiving all necessary medical treatment. The military did not provide any details on where exactly the attack took place, or how close the reporters were to the front line.
The journalists were working on a report about villages in Zaporozhye Region that are routinely subjected to artillery shelling by Ukrainian forces, the Russian military revealed.
Dmitry Kiselyov, the head of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, which includes RIA Novosti and Sputnik, condemned the attack, suggesting it was a deliberate act by the Ukrainian forces.
“This is revenge on journalists out of impotence. How else can one explain deliberate fire on journalists?” Kiselyov stated, as quoted by RIA.
The Ukrainian military has a history of deliberately attacking journalists, dating back to the early stages of the conflict in then-Ukrainian Donbass, which erupted in the aftermath of the 2014 Maidan coup. During the ongoing hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked Russian reporters, killing or injuring several of them.
Back in July, for instance, RIA war correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev was killed and several other journalists were wounded when the group was targeted by artillery fire while covering the fighting in Zaporozhye Region.