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- War in Ukraine
The Deadly Cost of Truth: Russia’s Crimes Against Journalists
For over thirty years, Russia has ranked as one of the world’s deadliest places for journalists, long known for targeted murders and suspicious “accidents.” The danger has now moved to the battlefield itself, where Russian forces deliberately kill media workers in Ukraine with drones—acts that constitute war crimes. Here, we cover the latest examples of this systematic campaign.
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Since February 2022, Russia has committed 858 crimes against media workers, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) reported in October 2025.
At least 138 media workers were killed as of November 13, 2025: 21 were killed while fulfilling their professional duties; 10 were registered as civilians, and 107 media workers were killed while serving in the Ukrainian army, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), and the International Federation of Journalists reported.
Russia’s latest crimes against journalists
Between September and November 1 alone, eight media workers were killed: three while performing their duty as journalists, and five were killed in action as part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Journalists killed while reporting
Antoni Lallican
Lallican was a French photojournalist who was documenting the war in Ukraine since March 2022. Russian forces killed him on the morning of October 3 in a targeted drone strike on his vehicle near Druzhkivka, Donetsk region.
Alyona Gramova (Hubanova) and Yevhen Karmazin
Ukrainian journalist Gramova, 43, and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin, 33, were killed by Russian forces in a direct strike with a Lancet drone on their vehicle on October 23. The car was parked at a gas station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front line.
Full list of media workers Russia has killed since 2022
The full list of known media workers that Russia killed between 2022 and 2025 while performing their professional duties includes:
Ihor Hudenko, Ukrainian photographer/video blogger
Date of Death: February 27, 2022.
Location: Kharkiv, Kharkiv region.
Circumstances: Disappeared during shelling on Feb 26; body found on Feb 27. Death was non-violent, according to doctors.
Yevhen Sakun (Ukrainian photojournalist for LIVE/correspondent for EFE)
Date of Death: March 1, 2022.
Location: Kyiv (missile attack on the Kyiv TV tower).
Brent Anthony Renaud, American journalist/documentarian/Peabody Award winner
Date of Death: March 13, 2022.
Location: Irpin, Kyiv region.
Circumstances: Shot dead by Russian soldiers at a checkpoint.
Pierre Zakrzewski, Irish photojournalist for Fox News
Date of Death: March 14, 2022.
Location: Horenka, Kyiv region.
Circumstances: Killed along with Oleksandra Kuvshynova when their car came under fire.
Oleksandra Kuvshynova, Ukrainian journalist/fixer/Fox News producer
Date of Death: March 14, 2022.
Location: Horenka, Kyiv Region.
Circumstances: Killed along with Pierre Zakrzewski when their car came under fire.
Oksana Baulina, Russian journalist for The Insider/activist
Date of Death: March 23, 2022.
Location: Kyiv.
Circumstances: Killed in Russian shelling.
Maksym Levin, Ukrainian photojournalist/correspondent for LB.ua.
Date of Death: April 1, 2022 (body found).
Location: Near Huta-Mezhyhirska, Kyiv region.
Circumstances: Went missing on March 13; found dead on April 1. Investigation indicated he was tortured and executed.
Mantas Kvedaravicius, Lithuanian filmmaker/documentary filmmaker
Date of Death: April 2, 2022.
Location: Mariupol, Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Killed while trying to leave the city he was documenting.
Yevhen Bal, Ukrainian journalist/writer/volunteer
Date of Death: April 2, 2022.
Location: Mariupol, Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Killed after being tortured by the Russian military.
Roman Nezhyborets, Ukrainian media personality/video engineer for Dytynets TV
Date of Death: Early April 2022.
Location: Yahidne, Chernihiv region.
Circumstances: Killed.
Zoreslav Zamoiskyi, Ukrainian journalist for Hromada Pryirpinnia
Date of Death: April 13, 2022 (body found).
Location: Bucha, Kyiv region.
Circumstances: Body found with signs of violent death.
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, French journalist for BFMTV channel
Date of Death: May 30, 2022.
Location: Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region.
Circumstances: Killed by shrapnel while covering a civilian evacuation.
Bohdan Bitik, Ukrainian freelancer
Date of Death: April 26, 2023.
Location: Near the Antonivskyi Bridge in Kherson.
Circumstances: Killed by a Russian bullet while helping Italian journalist Corrado Zunino.
Arman Soldin, French AFP video journalist
Date of Death: May 9, 2023.
Location: Near Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Killed in a rocket attack while preparing a story.
Viktoria Amelina, Ukrainian writer who documented war crimes
Date of Death: July 1, 2023.
Location: Kramatorsk, Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Died from wounds sustained during Russian shelling.
Volodymyr Myroniuk, Ukrainian and American freelance photojournalist
Date of Death: September 25, 2023.
Location: Near Kurdyumivka, Donbas.
Circumstances: Killed while taking photos.
Ryan Evans, British security adviser for Reuters
Date of Death: August 24, 2024.
Location: Kramatorsk (Sapphire Hotel), Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Killed as a result of a Russian missile attack while covering military operations.
Viktoriia Roshchyna, Ukrainian journalist for Hromadske / freelance writer
Date of Death: September 19, 2024.
Location: Died during transportation from Taganrog to Moscow.
Circumstances: Disappeared on Aug 3, 2023, in occupied territories; Russian authorities confirmed detention in April 2024; died in Russian captivity.
Antoni Lallican, French photojournalist for the Hans Lucas agency
Date of Death: October 3, 2025.
Location: Near Druzhkivka, Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Killed by a Russian FPV drone strike while performing professional duties.
Alyona Gramova (Hubanova), Ukrainian journalist/war correspondent
Date of Death: October 23, 2025.
Location: Kramatorsk, Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Killed by a Russian Lancet drone that targeted the journalist’s car.
Yevhen Karmazin, Ukrainian cameraman
Date of Death: October 23, 2025.
Location: Kramatorsk, Donetsk region.
Circumstances: Killed by a Russian Lancet drone that hit the journalist’s car.
Attempted strikes against journalists
Just recently, UNITED24 Media journalist Philip Malzahn came under the attack of one of the Russian drones that was waiting for its target on the ground. The UAV pilot chose to target the vehicle that Malzahn and the servicemen accompanying him were using to reach their position. They made it out of the car before the drone smacked into the car and exploded.
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Another instance of an attempted strike occurred in October against the German Die Welt journalist Ibrahim Naber, his cameraman Viktor, and producer Ivan. They were injured in Eastern Ukraine while filming the work of a Ukrainian air defense unit. A Ukrainian soldier who accompanied them was killed.
Daphne Wesdorp, a reporter for the Dutch outlet Het Nederlands Dagblad, was attacked in the city of Kostiantynivka, in the Donetsk region. She was documenting the destruction inflicted on the Holy Dormition Church when a Russian UAV tried to strike. The press officer of the 24th Separate Mechanised Brigade, Oleh Petrasiuk, managed to shoot it down.
On November 8, a Russian drone deliberately targeted a Proliska Humanitarian Mission car near Kostiantynivka, the Donetsk region. The vehicle carried two volunteers and two journalists from Spain and Austria. All survived.
Journalists killed while serving in the military
In the last two months, Russia’s war has taken the lives of five media workers who chose to leave their civilian careers and join the ranks to defend their homeland.
Kostiantyn Huzenko
Huzenko was a Ukrainian photographer and staff sergeant of the 35th Marine Brigade named after Rear Admiral Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was killed on November 1, 2025, in the Donetsk Region, due to a Russian missile strike.
Bohdan Budai
Budai was a Ukrainian journalist working for the news outlet Vezha. In September 2023, Bohdan joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, serving in the 144th Separate Mechanized Brigade as an officer of the communications department and later as an officer of the civil-military cooperation group. On September 26, 2025, Bohdan died in the line of duty.
Oleksandr Urvantsev
In the past, a cameraman from the Chernihiv channel, Dytynets, Urvantsev, served as a drone operator in the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade. He was killed in action in the Kharkiv region on October 7.
Vadym Pidlypenskyi
On October 25, Pidlypensky was killed while performing a combat mission near Lyman, the Donetsk region. He worked as a Ligamedia sales manager since 2015 and enlisted in the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2024.
Anton Bondarenko
Formerly a fixer who helped French journalists from TF1 and LCI to cover the war in Ukraine, and later joined the 13th Khartiia Brigade, went missing on September 15 in the Kharkiv direction. On November 7, 2025, a DNA test confirmed that Anton was killed by a drone attack.
Journalists in Russian captivity
During an OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference held in October, Viktoria Nesterenko, Program Manager from the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, pointed out the systematic violence against journalists in Russian-occupied territories since 2014, starting with Crimea. As of now, at least 26 journalists, 17 of them being from Crimea, are illegally detained by Russia in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
“The occupation authorities systematically conduct illegal searches in the homes of journalists and media offices, pressure their families, label them as ‘foreign agents’, impose fines, open fabricated administrative and criminal cases, use punitive psychiatry, and arbitrary detention,” Nesterenko said.
At the beginning of October, PACE adopted a resolution under the name “Journalists Matter: The Need to Step Up Efforts to Liberate Ukrainian Journalists Held in Captivity by the Russian Federation.” The document calls on Russian authorities to release Ukrainian journalists captured by Russia and to end the practices of torture and persecution.
“The resolution also calls for restitution and for Russia to pay reparations, in particular for destroyed media offices and television towers. Let me remind you that in 2022 there were numerous russian attacks on media infrastructure aimed at depriving people of access to truthful information,” said MP Yevheniia Kravchuk, Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and member of Ukraine’s permanent delegation to PACE.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in its turn, welcomed the adoption of the resolution aimed to support Ukrainian journalists who “have suffered persecution, unlawful arrests, torture, and even death as a result of Russian aggression.”
The International humanitarian law is clear on the matter of attacking media workers, protecting journalists as civilians.
On the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, November 2, the Council of Europe emphasized its condemnation of acts of aggression against media workers: “We strongly condemn all acts of unlawful detention, torture, and killing of civilian journalists in the context of armed conflicts and military aggression. Such actions constitute grave breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law and an assault on the very foundations of free and independent journalism.”
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