Russian journalists killed by Ukrainian strike
Three members of a Russian news crew have been killed in a Ukrainian attack while reporting from the Lugansk People’s Republic 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. Their vehicle was reportedly struck by two missiles fired from a US-supplied Ukrainian HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system. Another journalist was critically wounded in the attack, according to Russian media reports.
“A civilian vehicle carrying journalists was targeted by two HIMARS missiles,” Zvezda said in a statement.
The incident is “yet another terrible loss for our team,” Izvestia’s director, Vladimir Tyulin, said. Earlier this year, a freelance reporter for the newspaper, Aleksandr Martemyanov, was killed in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic when the civilian vehicle he was in was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.
Kiev has been receiving M142 HIMARS and its heavier tracked counterpart, the M270 MLRS, from the US and other Western countries since mid-2022. Initially touted as a key tool for striking high-value Russian military assets, the systems have been routinely used by Kiev for strikes against civilian targets.
Ukraine was reportedly briefly cut off from HIMARS targeting data earlier this month amid the fallout of a heated exchange in the Oval Office between Vladimir Zelensky and US President Donald Trump. Access to targeting data, however, was reinstated soon afterwards.
Moscow has said it is not possible for Kiev to operate sophisticated systems such as the HIMARS without direct Western input, arguing that providing intelligence and targeting data makes Ukraine’s backers complicit in its attacks and a party to the conflict.
