UKRAINE-CRISIS/RUSSIA-JOURNALIST (PHOTO, TV) – REUTERS Agency
Jul 22 (Reuters) – A Russian war reporter was killed and three wounded in Ukraine on Saturday in what the Defense Ministry said was a Ukrainian cluster munition attack, sparking outrage from Moscow.
Separately, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said one of its journalists, Yevgeny Shilko, was injured elsewhere in Ukraine in a Russian cluster munition attack that killed a Ukrainian soldier. The journalist is out of danger.
Cluster bombs are in the crosshairs after Ukraine received supplies from the United States this month. Many countries ban them because they rain shrapnel over a wide area and can pose a risk to civilians. Some bomblets do not explode immediately, but can go off years later.
Reuters could not independently verify the use of such weapons in either of the two incidents on Saturday. Both sides have used them over the course of the 17-month Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The dead Russian journalist was identified as Rostislav Zhuravlev, a war correspondent for the state-run RIA news agency. His three companions were evacuated from the battlefield after being shot in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, according to the Defense Ministry.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced what she called Ukraine’s “criminal terror” and said, without providing evidence, that the attack appeared deliberate.
“Those responsible for the brutal retaliation against a Russian journalist will inevitably suffer a well-deserved punishment. Full responsibility will be shared by those who supplied cluster munitions to their Kiev protégés,” he declared.
Ukraine did not immediately comment on the incident.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, Caleb Davis and Olena Harmash; Spanish editing by Carlos Serrano)
Source: Ambito
