The Russian Ministry of Defense commented on the AFU attack on journalists in the DNR

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development on January 4 commented on the attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on journalists in the DNR, which resulted in the death of Izvestiya correspondent Alexander Martemyanov.

"Media personnel could not have been a military target, they were in a civilian car," reads a statement by the Russian Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadaev, which was published in the ministry's Telegram channel.

It is specified that the car stopped on the highway Donetsk - Gorlovka because of punctured wheels. At that moment the car was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.

As Shadaev noted, RIA Novosti correspondents Maxim Romanenko and Mikhail Kevkhiev, Bloknot Donetsk editor Svetlana Larina and military correspondent Isabella Liberman were also injured in the attack. They received shrapnel wounds and their lives are not threatened at the moment.

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Izvestia correspondent Alexander Martemyanov was killed on January 4 when a Ukrainian army drone hit a car on the Donetsk-Gorlovka highway. He died of his wounds.

In his turn, the first deputy permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Dmitriy Polyanskiy, said that the incident would be discussed at the next UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

Alexander Martemyanov worked as a freelance correspondent for Izvestia since 2014. In 2023, he was wounded during shelling by the AFU in Donetsk, but returned to work after recovering. Martemyanov has been awarded the medal "for Bravery", the insignia "for services to the Donetsk People's Republic" of the III degree.