A Russian journalist was killed near the frontline in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region, the Russian Defense Ministry said, as Moscow accused Kiev of using US-supplied cluster munitions in this month’s attack.
Rostislav Zhuravlev, a war correspondent for Russia’s RIA news agency, was killed and three other Russian journalists injured in a Ukrainian artillery attack on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding they were evacuated from the battlefield but Zhuravlev died during the trip.
“Four journalists of varying severity were injured as a result of an attack by the Ukrainian army with cluster munitions,” the Russian army said in a statement.
The other correspondents were said to have wounds of “moderate severity”.
Al Jazeera’s Daniel Hawkins, reporting from Moscow, said there was an “angry reaction” to the incident in Moscow.
“Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said that this attack crossed all moral red lines,” Hawkins said, adding that Konstantin Kosachev, deputy spokesman for the Russian Federation Council, said Ukraine and Washington were equally responsible for the attack.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Zhuravlev’s death was “a heinous, premeditated crime” committed by Western powers and Kiev.
“Everything indicates that the attack on the group of journalists was no accident,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced Ukraine’s “criminal terror” and said without providing any evidence that the attack appeared to be premeditated.
“Those responsible for the brutal reprisals against a Russian journalist will inevitably face a well-deserved punishment,” she said.
She also said responsibility for the killing also lay with those who supplied Ukraine with cluster munitions.
According to the ministry, “the journalists collected material for a report on the bombing of settlements in the Zaporizhia region by militants of the Kiev regime with cluster munitions, which are banned in many countries around the world.”
The RIA agency also reported Zhuravlev’s death, saying he was killed near the frontline village of Piatykhatky.
No comment was initially available from Ukraine on the incident.
cluster munitions
The Defense Ministry said Ukraine used cluster munitions in the incident but did not provide any evidence and Portal was unable to independently verify this.
Separately, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said Ukraine fired cluster munitions at a village near Ukraine’s border on Friday, but there were no casualties or damage.
“In the Belgorod district, 21 artillery shells and three cluster munitions from a multiple missile system were fired at the village of Zhuravlevka,” said Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Ukraine received cluster bombs from the United States this month, but has pledged to use them only to disperse enemy soldiers. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said this week that Ukrainian forces are using them appropriately and effectively against Russian formations.
Such weapons contain dozens of small bomblets that rain shrapnel over a large area, but are banned in many countries due to the potential danger they pose to civilians. Ukraine has repeatedly stated that its use will be limited to the battlefield.
According to the United Nations, Russia repeatedly used cluster munitions even during the war.
Drone attack in Crimea
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike in Crimea blew up a munitions depot, prompting evacuations on the Moscow-annexed peninsula and disrupting rail services.
The Ukrainian military confirmed that they launched the drone strike and, through its press service, claimed that it had destroyed an oil depot and Russian arms caches in the Krasnohvardiiske region, but without specifying what weapons were used.
Moscow-deployed Crimea chief Sergei Aksyonov said a “hostile” drone blew up a munitions depot and ordered the evacuation of people living within a five-kilometer (3.1-mile) radius of the zone.
“As a result of an attack by an enemy drone on the Krasnogvardeisky district, an ammunition depot exploded,” Aksyonov said on Telegram, referring to an inland area of central Crimea.
Rail traffic was briefly interrupted. Pro-Russian authorities later said traffic was restored but “limited”.
Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been the target of Kiev’s attacks during Moscow’s 17-month Ukraine offensive, but has come under increasingly fierce and escalating attacks in recent weeks.
The attack came less than a week after a Ukrainian attack on the Kerch Bridge, which connects the peninsula with Russia, killed two Russians before dawn and prompted Moscow to pull out of a landmark grain export deal.
The 19-kilometer road and rail bridge is a vital logistics link for Russian forces and is also frequently used by Russian tourists who flock to Crimea in summer.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday the bridge is a legitimate target as it is a military supply route for Russia.
[Al Jazeera]Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president said on Saturday he had spoken with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg about “unblocking” the Black Sea Grain Corridor.
Russia last week withdrew from the international grain deal that had allowed Ukraine since last summer to sell some 33 million tons of grain and food abroad despite the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We exchanged assessments of the current situation in the Black Sea and the associated risks for global food security,” said Zelenskyy on Twitter after a phone call with Stoltenberg. “We have also established with Mr. Stoltenberg the priority and future steps required for the unblocking and sustainable operation of the Black Sea Grain Corridor.”
Moscow said its part of the deal is being flouted, such as implementing a parallel deal to relax rules on its own food and fertilizer exports.