Russia: Channel One journalist killed by a landmine near Ukrainian border
Anna Prokofieva, a Russian war correspondent for the state-controlled Channel One, was killed and her cameraman Dmitry Volkov was seriously wounded by a landmine explosion on 26 March in the Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine. The International and the European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) condemn the killing and call for a swift investigation that clarifies the circumstances of the journalist’s death.
Prokofieva had been covering the war in Ukraine for state-controlled Channel One since 2023.
Channel One’s cameraman Dmitry Volkov, who was injured in the mine explosion, was transferred to a hospital in the Kursk region.
This incident follows the killing of three Russian media workers, Alexander Fedorchak, Andrei Panov, and Alexander Sirkeli, in a rocket attack earlier this week in Luhansk, an eastern Ukrainian region under Russian occupation.
The IFJ and the EFJ demand the launch of an independent investigation into Prokofieva’s death. “It is essential that the circumstances of Prokofieva’s death are investigated. We recall that in areas of armed conflict, journalists must be treated and protected as civilians, and allowed to perform their work safely and without interference.”
