829 crimes against journalists and media in Ukraine committed by Russia in 3 years, 1 month of full-scale war

In the three years and one month since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has committed 829 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine, as evidenced by the Monitoring Study of Russia's Crimes Against Journalists and the Media, which the Institute of Mass Information has been carrying out since the first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The IMI recorded six crimes against the media and journalists committed by Russia in February—March 2025. These included death threats, damage to media offices, and cyber attacks.

Five media professionals were killed by Russian forces in this period:

• Tetyana Kulyk, a journalist with Ukrinform, died in a Russian drone strike on Kyiv oblast on the night of February 25/26, 2025. Tetyana was the author and host of the project “Nation of the Invincible”.
• Yuriy Kirpik, a producer of Starlight Media projects. His death was reported by his colleague, Starlight Media executive producer Oleksandr Bykov, on March 13, 2025.
  
• Arthur Shybalov, a PTV UA cameraman and video editor turned soldier. Killed in action in the Kursk region (Russia) on March 13, 2025.
  
• Kyrylo Polikevych, a Suspilne Dnipro videographer turned soldier. Killed in action on March 16 while performing a combat mission near Preobrazhenka, Pokrovsk district, Donetsk oblast.
  
• Dmytro Bendikov, a TSN.ua website editor turned army officer. Killed in action while performing a combat mission in the East of Ukraine on March 18, 2025.
  

A total of 102 media professionals have been killed in Ukraine over the course of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Russia's crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine

On March 12 and 13, the online media outlet Pershyi Kryvorizkyi received emails claiming that a bomb had been planted in their editorial office, a video allegedly showing the bomb being planted, and death threats.

A total of 4 anonymous letters were sent to the media outlet’s inbox, with two arriving 1 minute apart and being identical in content. In the letters, the unknown sender addresses two local media outlets and claims that a tetryl explosive device has been planted in their buildings.

Offices of two online media outlets were affected by Russian shelling strikes: the ceiling in Zaporizhzhia's inform.zp.ua crumbled, and the Oboz.ua office in Kyiv was damaged (the blast wave blew out windows and doors in the office building, and the Oboz TV studio sustained significant damage).

Two media outlets reported cyber attacks. These were Kremenchutskyi Telegraf, whose website was down due to a DDoS attack which the team attributed to Russia, and PTV UA. The latter was hacked, with hackers posting a video calling for the overthrow of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The team noticed that all articles on the website had the headline “Urgent address by PTV UA” and contained a link to someone else’s video. They suspect Russian involvement in the attack, because the video led to harmful statements about Ukraine's statehood.

Read the full montioring study here.

The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) is a Ukrainian non-governmental media organization that has been operating since 1996. The IMI defends the rights of journalists, analyzes the media field and covers media-related events, fights propaganda and disinformation and has been providing media outlets with safety gear for trips to the combat zone since the start of the Russo–Ukrainian war in 2014.

The IMI carries out Ukraine's only freedom of speech monitoring and keeps a list of high quality and sustainable online media outlets, documents Russia's crimes against the media committed in the course of the war on Ukraine. The IMI has representatives in 20 oblasts of Ukraine and a network of "Mediabaza" hubs to provide journalists with continuous support. The IMI's partners include Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House; the organization is a member of the International Organization for the Protection of Freedom of Expression (IFEX).