MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. Russia demands the international organizations concerned strongly condemn the Ukrainian military’s attack on a camera crew of the Lugansk branch of the Russian TV broadcaster VGTRK in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said in a commentary.
"On April 10, a film crew of Vesti Lugansk (a regional branch of the VGTRK) came under fire from the Ukrainian armed forces while filming a TV report near the town of Kremennaya in the Lugansk People's Republic. As a result of targeted fire from Kiev-controlled territory, cameraman Denis Shum was wounded in the leg and correspondent Artem Yundas suffered a concussion. We demand that the relevant international organizations strongly condemn and take appropriate measures to respond to the ongoing series of terrorist attacks by the Kiev clique and its agents against representatives of the Russian media sphere," Zakharova.
She pointed out that Russia regarded the incident as another in a string of criminal acts by the regime of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, "which continues to consider journalists and war correspondents as priority targets and, moreover, openly brags about it."
"Unarmed correspondents, photographers and cameramen - indisputably all of them civilians - find themselves in the Ukrainian militants’ line of fire. A real hunt is on for Russian media in violation of international humanitarian norms with the use of all possible means of destruction," she continued. "Terrorist methods of elimination are being used to implement these criminal plans with the tacit consent of Ukraine's Western patrons and servile human rights agencies. We would like to remind everyone that over the past two years the Kiev regime has brutally murdered journalists Daria Dugina (Platonova), Oleg Klokov, Vladlen Tatarsky, Rostislav Zhuravlev and Boris Maksudov."
In turn, Yury Barbashov, a member of the Kherson Region’s Duma, has told TASS that the attack by Ukrainian forces on a film crew of the Lugansk branch of the VGTRK was not the first one during the special military operation.
"In other instances, journalists on the left bank of the Dnieper came under multiple attacks and suffered from car bomb explosions and car hunts. Therefore, the public at large must be aware of this danger, as well as the need for covering the crimes of the Kiev regime that take place in the liberated territories. This is precisely what our journalists have been doing with great dedication and risk to their lives," he said.