The Russian state newspaper Izvestia says one of its freelance journalists has been killed in a drone strike near the Russian-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow has accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately targeting Alexander Martemyanov. Ukraine did not comment.
Izvestia said that the car carrying Martemyanov was hit while traveling on the highway in an area full of Russians.
Five other media workers were reportedly injured in the incident.
“Ukrainian forces launched a strike on an illegal vehicle carrying Izvestia journalist Alexander Martemyanov,” said a report on the Telegram channel.
“The car was far from the contact line.”
The vehicle was returning to defuse bombs in the Russian-held city of Gorlivka when it was hit, Russian media reported.
Two RIA journalists were injured in the attack, the agency said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the incident a “deliberate killing”.
In a statement, he described it as “another heinous crime in a series of bloody atrocities” committed by the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The EU banned Russian outlets – including Izvestia and RIA – in May, accusing them of allowing “the spread and support of Russian propaganda and the war of aggression against Ukraine”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 15 journalists have been killed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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