Death of Sputnik War Correspondent: Moscow Promises to Punish Those Responsible
17:03 22.07.2023 (Updated: 17:38 22.07.2023)
© RIA NovostiSputnik and RIA Novosti war correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev
© RIA Novosti
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Rostislav Zhuravlev, a war journalist for Sputnik, was killed on Saturday during shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the special military operation zone.
Those who are guilty of the brutal massacre of the Russian journalist Rostislav Zhuravlev will be punished, the measure of responsibility will be shared by the suppliers of cluster munitions to Kiev.
This has been stated in the comments distributed on Saturday by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
"Those guilty of the brutal massacre of a Russian journalist will inevitably suffer the punishment they deserve. The entire measure of responsibility will be shared by those who supplied their Kiev proteges with cluster munitions," the diplomat noted.
She added that "the Kiev regime continues the practice of criminal terror."
"Everything points to the fact that the attack on the journalistic group was not carried out by chance: the correspondents were collecting materials for a report on the shelling of settlements of the Zaporozhye region by militants of the Kiev regime with cluster munitions banned in many countries of the world," the diplomat stressed.
Zakharova noted that Washington, London and Paris "only verbally express concern about the safety of journalists, but in fact they are sponsors of terrorists."
She also stressed that international structures will prefer to turn a blind eye to the "heinous crime against Russian journalists."
"We have no illusions that the relevant international structures will prefer, as before in such cases, to turn a blind eye to this heinous crime, which, in fact, makes them complicit in the terrorist lawlessness of Kiev. This cynical narrow-mindedness once again confirms their political bias and dysfunctionality. The silence of such institutions does not mean that evil has been granted an indulgence for murder and the desire to drown out an inconvenient truth," she stressed.
Konstantin Mikhalchevsky, a Sputnik photo correspondent , also sustained injuries during the Ukrainian attack.
The shelling happened close to Pyatikhatki, Dnepropetrovsk region, where on Saturday a group of Russian journalists came under fire.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian military used cluster munitions during the shelling.