Sputnik War Correspondent Dies During Ukrainian Shelling in Special Op Zone

Sputnik and RIA Novosti war correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev has died during shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the special military operation zone, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Saturday.

Sputnik photo correspondent Konstantin Mikhalchevsky was also wounded in the Ukrainian shelling.

The shelling took place near the village of Pyatikhatki, where a group of journalists came under fire on Saturday. According to preliminary reports, a journalist and a cameraman from the Russian media agency Izvestia was also wounded.

"On July 22, 2023, at about 12:00 noon, AFU units launched an artillery attack on a group of journalists from the Izvestia Multimedia Information Center and the [Sputnik] news agency, who were preparing materials on the AFU's artillery shelling of settlements in the Zaporozhye region with cluster munitions," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Sputnik photographer Konstantin Mikhalchevsky was wounded with varying degrees of severity and is currently in hospital along with the other injured journalists, where they are receiving all possible medical care, said Yevgeny Balitsky, acting governor of the Zaporozhye region.

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According to local Russian media, Izvestia correspondent Roman Polskov suffered four shrapnel wounds, while cameraman Dmitry Shilkov had shrapnel in his soft tissues and a small fracture.

The head of the Rossiya Segodnya international media group, to which Sputnik and RIA Novosti belong, Dmitry Kiselyov, said that the late Sputnik war correspondent was an experienced professional who was the first in the most dangerous zones and reported accurate and important information.

"Our war correspondent, Rostislav Zhuravlev, died. Other guys were wounded. Cluster munitions. We remember everyone and will remember everything," said Margarita Simonyan, Sputnik's editor-in-chief.

According to the wishes of Zhuravlev's mother, the late Sputnik correspondent will be buried in Ekaterinburg, where he was born.

The Union of Journalists of Russia expressed its condolences to the family of Rossiya Segodnya and to Zhuravlev's colleagues, as well as to his family members, and said that the Union is ready to provide any necessary assistance.

"Being a war correspondent is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, one of the most dangerous jobs in journalism. Sometimes we all lose our comrades. On behalf of the Russian Union of Journalists, I express my deepest condolences to his colleagues, family and relatives. I hope that the injured colleague will recover quickly," said Vladimir Solovyov, head of the Russian Union of Journalists.

For its part, Russia's Civic Chamber is currently petitioning to award the Order of Courage to Rostislav Zhuravlev, who was one of the top ten leading war correspondents in the country, Civic Chamber member Alexander Malkevich told Sputnik.