SIMFEROPOL, March 31. /TASS/. Unidentified individuals have desecrated the grave site of Izvestia reporter Alexander Fedorchak, who died while performing his professional duty in the special military operation zone, as well as the graves of three other operation participants, Nizhnegorsky district Head Anton Kravets said on his Telegram channel.
"Today overnight, vandals set fire to the graves of military correspondent Alexander Fedorchak and three other special military operation servicemen at the cemetery in the urban locality of Nizhnegorsky. Law enforcement agents are working at the scene. The circumstances, motives, and identity of the perpetrators are being established," the statement said.
The district head emphasized that the families of the deceased would receive all necessary assistance. The fact of vandalism was also confirmed by the Izvestia TV channel. The published photograph shows the wreaths, flowers, and the cross charred.
"With regard to this, a criminal case has been launched by the Nizhnegorsky district’s investigation department of the Russian police under part 1 of Article 244 of the Russian Criminal Code (outrages upon bodies of the deceased and their burial places). At the moment, the police are conducting activities to establish the circumstances of the incident, as well as identify suspects in the crime," the police of the Republic of Crimea stated.
Furthermore, the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee in Crimea and Sevastopol told the media that one more criminal case has been opened. "On the instructions by acting head of the Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol Yevgeny Rudnev, a criminal investigation has been opened into the damage caused to the military burial," the press office said.
The prosecutor's office added that the agency was monitoring the investigation launched into the desecration of burial places.
Correspondent Alexander Fedorchak was born in Crimea. He graduated from a faculty of journalism, later working at the Crimean Information Agency, and then at Crimea-24. Since 2022, he worked as a correspondent for the Zvezda TV channel, and after that for Izvestia in the special military operation zone, where he would cover the news on the frontline. Fedorchak’s funeral took place with military honors in his home settlement of Nizhnegorsky in northeast Crimea.