Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says many organizations are “refusing” to respond.
The Kremlin, through spokesman Dmitry Peskov, condemned the international community’s lack of response to the killing of Russian journalists by Ukraine as unacceptable. The statement was made on Tuesday.
On Monday, a Ukrainian attack in the Lugansk People’s Republic resulted in the deaths of three Russian journalists who were covering the conflict.
This incident is the latest in a series of deaths of Russian media personnel since the conflict in Ukraine escalated in 2022.
“We constantly draw the attention of the international community to acts of assault, intimidation, attacks, and attempted murders of journalists in the conflict zone. We consider the reaction of the international community to have been extremely inadequate. Many simply refuse to respond, which…is inexcusable,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
The attack killed Aleksandr Fedorchak, a reporter for Izvestia; Andrey Panov, a cameraman for Zvezda TV; and Aleksandr Sirekli, their driver. Reports indicate their vehicle, clearly marked as a press vehicle, was hit by two missiles launched from a US-supplied Ukrainian HIMARS system.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has labeled the actions of Ukrainian forces as terrorism. Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights ombudswoman, announced her intention to seek international condemnation of Kiev’s actions.
According to Peskov, “The fire was precision-guided. [The Ukrainians] specifically wanted to kill [the journalists]. The Kiev regime continues its atrocities…against [unarmed] journalists. This is the essence of the Kiev regime,”
Earlier in the year, Alexander Martemianov, another Izvestia journalist, was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on international bodies, including UNESCO, the OSCE, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to respond to what it describes as Kiev’s “continuing effort to kill Russian media staff in cold blood.”
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, over 30 Russian journalists have died in the conflict zone since 2022.
In November, Russia criticized UNESCO for omitting deadly Ukrainian attacks on Russian journalists from its recent report on global journalist safety for 2022-23.
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