Ukraine mourns two journalists killed by a Russian drone strike

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Mourners gathered at a church in Kyiv on Monday to honor two Ukrainian journalists killed last week when a Russian drone struck their car in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

War correspondent Olena Hubanova, who worked under the pseudonym Alyona Gramova, and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin were killed on Thursday by a Russian Lancet drone in Kramatorsk, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front line. Another reporter who was part of the team was wounded.

It was the latest deadly attack on journalists covering the war in Ukraine. Earlier this month, a French photojournalist, Antoni Lallican, and a Ukrainian reporter, Grigoriy Ivanchenko, were wounded in a similar strike. Ivanchenko later had a leg amputated.

The growing reach of drones — now extending more than 20 kilometers from the front line — has made reporting increasingly perilous.

The two journalists, who often worked together, were honored side by side during a funeral service at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, where their coffins were covered with fresh roses.

“Defending the truth is one of the highest forms of love for one’s neighbor,” the priest, Viktor Zhyvchyk, said during the service. “In their effort to show the truth to the world, these journalists gave their lives.”

“Since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, they covered events in the Donetsk region, telling the truth about enemy crimes, evacuations of civilians and the stories of our defenders,” regional governor Vadym Filashkin wrote on Telegram. “They were always among the first to arrive in the hottest spots.”

In a statement, the FreeDom channel said Hubanova worked constantly in the most dangerous areas of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, “telling the world the truth about how Russian forces are destroying her native Donetsk region.”

Colleague Olha Mykhaliuk, who also works for FreeDom, brought blue and yellow flowers to the funeral.

“Attacks on journalists have become more frequent. The enemy sees it as a kind of victory,” Mykhaliuk said, noting that reporting from front-line areas is dangerous but essential.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, at least 135 media workers have been killed, according to Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists.

Hubanova was born in Yenakiieve, a city that has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

Karmazin, 33, was a native of Kramatorsk. He is survived by his wife and son.