Ukraine: Russian drone strike damages TV channel in Kyiv, injuring six media workers
On 8 September, TV journalists from We Are Ukraine (Ми — Україна) and We Are Ukraine+ (Ми — Україна+) were broadcasting live as part of the national “United News” telethon, when a Russian airstrike hit the building and significantly damaged the premises and injured six. The International Federation of Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) join their affiliates, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the Media Trade Union of Ukraine (MTUU) in strongly condemning the attack.
According to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), the team had just finished a staff meeting before going live. Emergency services and an ambulance were quickly dispatched to the scene, where first responders provided medical assistance to the injured. Three media workers were hospitalised with serious injuries, while others sustained cuts and minor injuries. Initially, three people were hospitalised. As of today, two of them remain in hospital and one is undergoing rehabilitation. The others were allowed to return home after receiving medical treatment.
For the media workers at We Are Ukraine, the damage was also a painful reminder that their workplace had been hit before. The same building was damaged in another Russian drone strike on 20 August. Repairs were still underway when the premises were hit again on 8 September.
This attack was part of a broader Russian offensive on Kyiv that killed five people and injured dozens, according to Ukrainian authorities. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strike on social media platform X, calling for an international response to Russia’s targeting of journalists and media outlets with drones.
Sergiy Tomilenko, President of the NUJU, said: “A newsroom is a civilian workplace. Journalists, editors, producers, technical staff and make-up artists, as well as security workers, go there to do their jobs. (…) We stand in solidarity with every injured colleague and the entire We Are Ukraine team. Attacks that endanger journalists and destroy the infrastructure they need to keep the public informed require strong international condemnation”.
Serhiy Shturkhetskyy, Chairman of the MTUU said: “We call on the international journalistic community to express solidarity and increase pressure to ensure that those responsible are held accountable. Journalists and newsrooms are civilians and civilian objects — they must never be treated as targets.”
EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutierrez said: “This is not an isolated incident, but a part of a deliberate pattern of attacks on media infrastructure in Ukraine since the war began. Every time a newsroom is hit, it is not only journalists’ lives that are put at risk, but the public’s right to know.”
IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “Once again, Russia is infringing international laws that protect journalists in times of war. Striking a newsroom while journalists are broadcasting live is a serious attack on press freedom and on the public’s right to access information. We stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues and call for full accountability for this attack.”
