Russian newspaper says its reporter killed by Ukraine drone strike

Russian state newspaper Izvestia says one of its freelance reporters has been killed in a drone strike near the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow accused Ukraine’s military of deliberately targeting Alexander Martemyanov. Ukraine has not commented.

Izvestia said a civilian vehicle carrying Martemyanov had been struck as it travelled on a highway in a Russian-occupied zone.

Four other media workers were reportedly injured in the same attack.

“The Ukrainian army launched a drone strike on a civilian car carrying Izvestia’s freelance correspondent Alexander Martemyanov,” the news outlet reported on its Telegram channel.

“The car was located far from the line of contact.”

The vehicle had been returning from covering shelling in the Russian-held city of Horlivka when it was hit, Russia’s state Ria news agency said.

Two Ria correspondents, both male, and two journalists from local outlet Bloknot Donetsk, both female, were also in the vehicle and were treated in hospital for injuries, Russian media report.

Martemyanov, who had been working for Izvestia since 2014, was wounded last year in a Ukrainian attack on Donetsk city but had returned to work after his recovery, his paper says.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the incident “deliberate murder”.

In a statement, she described it as “another brutal crime in a series of bloody atrocities” carried out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government.

The EU blocked Russian outlets – including Izvestia and Ria – in May, saying they “spread and support the Russian propaganda and war of aggression against Ukraine”.

Before Martemyanov’s death, the International Federation of Journalists said at least 21 journalists had been killed in Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.