Russian TV journalist killed by landmine near Ukraine border

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian state TV journalist was killed and her cameraman was seriously injured by a landmine in Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, state television said on Wednesday.

War correspondent Anna Prokofieva and cameraman Dmitry Volkov ran over a landmine planted by the Ukrainian military, the Pervy Kanal TV channel said in a statement.

Prokofieva, 35, “died while performing her professional duty”, it said.

Russia’s southern Belgorod region has come under frequent drone and shelling attacks from Ukraine with unconfirmed reports of ground fighting there amid a Ukrainian retreat from Kursk, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.

Earlier this week an artillery strike killed six people including two Russian journalists and their driver who were on assignment in Moscow-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Russian authorities and media said.

Almost 20 media workers have been killed since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to data provided by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow and by Anna Kozlova in Gdansk, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)