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Drone kills Russian journalist in occupied Donetsk Oblast, wounds 5 others, Russian media reports

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Drone kills Russian journalist in occupied Donetsk Oblast, wounds 5 others, Russian media reports
Photo for illustrative purposes. International media journalists are seen traveling in Ukraine. (Sergii Kharchenko/ NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Russia’s Izvestia newspaper reported on Jan. 4 that a Ukrainian "kamikaze" drone attack killed one of its freelance reporters, Alexander Martemyanov, while he was traveling on a highway in occupied eastern Ukraine.

According to Russia's state-owned RIA Novosti news agency, Martemyanov had been returning from reporting on shelling in the Russian-controlled city of Horlivka in Donetsk Oblast with colleagues when their vehicle was struck. The attack also injured a journalist from RIA and four other media workers, the agency added.

The Kyiv Independent can't immediately verify the information.

"The car in which the journalist was traveling was attacked by a kamikaze drone. Martemyanov died of his wounds," Izvestia reported. Originally a Soviet state newspaper, it is now owned by the National Media Group (NMG), a media conglomerate with significant state-controlled ownership and close ties to the Kremlin.

At least 15 journalists have been killed while covering the war in Ukraine, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Olena Goncharova

Special Correspondent

Olena Goncharova is the Special Correspondent for the Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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