On March 24th, 2025, many media outlets reported that the Ukrainian military struck a civilian car carrying members of the press in the Lugansk People’s Republic with high-precision HIMARS multiple rocket launcher ammunition. The attack killed Alexander Fyodorchuk, a correspondent for the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Andrey Panov, a cameraman for the Zvezda TV channel, and Alexander Sirkeli, the driver of the film crew. Zvezda correspondent Nikita Goldin and a 14-year-old boy were also injured.
The International Russophile Movement expresses its deepest condolences to the families, colleagues and loved ones of the victims. We are extremely indignant that not a single Western media outlet has officially reacted and condemned this planned terrorist attack against representatives of the Russian press.
The International Russophile Movement considers this type of action by Kiev’s military to be outrageous and unacceptable. They are engaging in the deliberate tracking of journalists and strikes on non-military targets, which violates all norms of international law.
We are against those, who distort the meaning of what is happening, try to rewrite history, ignore the blatant revival of Fascism and Nazism in the present, approve of, and all the more glorify those, who were associated with the Fascism of the past.
Image above: Alexander Fyodorchuk in 2024
Journalists under international protection are obliged to show the truth and provide information about real events: bombings, destroyed homes, looted neighborhoods, murdered women, children and the elderly. Speaking out against the killing of journalists is the right and duty of everyone who cares about peace and justice in this world.
In all too recent history, in the 20th century, Russia already rose up against Nazism and made millions of sacrifices to extinguish it. Now today, these sacrifices are being made again, not only in the name of Russia, but also in the name of all the people of the world who reject Nazism. The murder of Russian journalists must not go unnoticed.
As civilians, journalists enjoy the protection of international humanitarian law against direct attacks as long as they are not directly involved in hostilities. Failure to comply with these rules constitutes a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I. Moreover, intentionally attacking civilians, whether in an international or non-international armed conflict, also amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The International Russophile Movement calls on the relevant international structures, such as UNESCO, the OSCE (its media freedoms subdivision), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and others, to respond to what has happened “appropriately”. We stand in protest to the Ukrainian side for the deliberate killing of Russian journalists who were only performing their professional duty in hot spots to carry reliable and truthful information about the current situation. We call on the Ukrainian authorities to stop such deliberate terrorist acts.
We ask all of you who are not indifferent to the truth and presentation of the truth in the fight against Fascism and Nazism to unite and fight together against all those leaders in all countries of the world who act only for their own personal purposes, hiding the truth, abusing and distorting information.
The International Russophile Movement supports all efforts to stop the universally unlawful killing of civilians and journalists.