Russian journalist blown up by mine on Ukrainian border

Telegraph

26-03-2025

A Russian TV war correspondent has been killed by a mine while working near the Ukrainian border.
Anna Prokofieva, who worked for Russia's state-run Channel One, was travelling in a car that hit an 'enemy mine' in Russia's western Belgorod region, her employer said.
She 'died while performing her professional duty', the TV channel wrote in a statement, adding that the blast also wounded her colleague, cameraman Dmitry Volkov.
Ms Prokofieva, 35, joined the channel in 2023 and had frequently reported from inside occupied Ukraine. She had also recently covered Ukraine's retreat from Suzha, the main settlement captured by Kyiv during its incursion into Russia's Kursk region.
Her last online post was dated Tuesday and showed her smiling in a forest, wearing military fatigues and a head-mounted camera.
'Somewhere on the border with country 404', she captioned the photo, in a derogatory reference to the '404 file not found' internet error that pro-Kremlin military bloggers use to refer to Ukraine.
Several Russian journalists have been killed in the three-year conflict, with their deaths highly publicised back home.
Confirming Ms Prokofieva's death, Maria Zakharova, the Kremlin's foreign ministry spokesman, accused Ukraine of frequently and deliberately targeting Russian media workers.
'Journalists could die en masse in connection with a natural disaster. Today this natural disaster is called the 'terrorist Kiev regime',' Ms Zakharova said.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's press secretary, was reported by the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper to have emphasised that Ms Prokofieva's death was yet another loss of a Russian journalist.
'Our condolences go first and foremost to Anna's family', Peskov was quoted as saying. He was also said to have expressed his condolences to the entire staff of the television channel that employed her.
The Izvestia newspaper reported that the Brics Journalists Association, representing media workers in the Kremlin-led intergovernmental organisation, had appealed to Unesco over what it claimed was the 'murder' of Russian correspondents.
'One cannot pretend because of political differences that there is no problem with the murders of journalists from Russia and it is necessary to prevent discrimination against Russian journalists,' Ivan Melnikov, director of the department for journalists' rights at the Brics association, was quoted as saying in an address to Audrey Azoulay, the Unesco director-general.
Ms Prokofieva's death comes two days after the Kremlin accused Ukraine of killing Russian journalists in a 'targeted' Himars missile strike in occupied eastern Ukraine.
The attack killed Alexander Fedorchak, a war correspondent from Izvestia, a major Russian newspaper, as well as cameraman Andrei Panov and their driver Alexander Sirkeli.
'Systematic and planned' attack
The strike in Luhansk killed six in total, according to Russian authorities, including a 14-year-old child. Another correspondent from Russia's Zvezda state news channel, Nikita Goldin, is reported to be in critical condition.
Kyiv has not yet commented on the reports, which have not been independently verified.
The attack was 'systematic and planned', Ms Zakharova claimed, without providing evidence. Russia's investigative committee said it had opened a criminal case.
It came the same day Ukraine destroyed four Russian helicopters using US-supplied Himars missiles in Belgorod. Unconfirmed reports also suggested it used the launchers to destroy two key bridges close to the border.
Ukrainian forces have launched small-scale attacks inside Belgorod over the past week, in what are thought to be attempts to relieve pressure on neighbouring Kursk, where a Russian counter-offensive has pushed Kyiv's troops back to a sliver of territory on the border.
Kyiv has also repeatedly accused Moscow of deliberately targeting journalists reporting on the conflict.
At least 21 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). However, other estimates put the number higher.
It comes amid growing uncertainty about the fate of a ceasefire agreed in the Black Sea between Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday after both sides accused each other of breaching the fragile terms.
The United States reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to cease fighting in the Black Sea and pause attacks against energy targets, with Washington agreeing to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow.
While Kyiv agreed to start the truce immediately, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that a number of conditions must be met before it comes into force, which involve the lifting of international sanctions.