![]() Russia commits 829 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine
In the three years and one month since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has committed 829 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine, as evidenced by the Monitoring Study of Russia's Crimes Against Journalists and the Media, which the Institute of Mass Information has been carrying out since the first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The IMI recorded six crimes against the media and journalists committed by Russia in February—March 2025. These included death threats, damage to media offices, and cyber attacks. Tetiana Kulyk, a journalist with Ukrinform, died in a Russian drone strike on Kyiv oblast on the night of February 25/26, 2025. Tetiana was the author and host of the project “Nation of the Invincible”. Yuriy Kirpik, a producer of Starlight Media projects. His death was reported by his colleague, Starlight Media executive producer Oleksandr Bykov, on March 13, 2025. Arthur Shybalov, a PTV UA cameraman and video editor turned soldier. Killed in action in the Kursk region (Russia) on March 13, 2025. Kyrylo Polikevych, a Suspilne Dnipro videographer turned soldier. Killed in action on March 16 while performing a combat mission near Preobrazhenka, Pokrovsk district, Donetsk oblast. Dmytro Bendikov, a TSN.ua website editor turned army officer. Killed in action while performing a combat mission in the East of Ukraine on March 18, 2025. A total of 102 media professionals have been killed in Ukraine over the course of Russia's full-scale invasion. On March 12 and 13, the online media outlet Pershyi Kryvorizkyi received emails claiming that a bomb had been planted in their editorial office, a video allegedly showing the bomb being planted, and death threats. A total of 4 anonymous letters were sent to the media outlet’s inbox, with two arriving 1 minute apart and being identical in content. In the letters, the unknown sender addresses two local media outlets and claims that a tetryl explosive device has been planted in their buildings. Offices of two online media outlets were affected by Russian shelling strikes: the ceiling in Zaporizhzhia's inform.zp.ua crumbled, and the Oboz.ua office in Kyiv was damaged (the blast wave blew out windows and doors in the office building, and the Oboz TV studio sustained significant damage). Two media outlets reported cyber attacks. These were Kremenchutskyi Telegraf, whose website was down due to a DDoS attack which the team attributed to Russia, and PTV UA. The latter was hacked, with hackers posting a video calling for the overthrow of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The team noticed that all articles on the website had the headline “Urgent address by PTV UA” and contained a link to someone else’s video. They suspect Russian involvement in the attack, because the video led to harmful statements about Ukraine's statehood. RELATED
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