Multiple international and Ukrainian media NGOs have spoken out against the amnesty for the war crimes committed in the course of Russia’s full-scale invasion (especially crimes against journalists) proposed by the US peace plan, as per the statement released by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) on the International Press Institute’s website on 4 December. The Institute of Mass Information is a signatory to the statement.
The organisations demand that those responsible for the killing of at least 16 journalists, the serious injury of dozens more, as well as for other attacks on media infrastructure, are identified and held accountable.
Investigations should rely, among other sources, on the expertise of Ukrainian journalists and media, the statement says.
“Any attempt to introduce blanket amnesty that covers potential war crimes committed against journalists, or civilians, would represent a severe breach of international law including international humanitarian law and relevant human rights obligations,” the statement reads.
The NGOs say that the deliberate targeting of journalists, as civilians, as well as media infrastructure, constitutes a war crime, and must be investigated as such under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and relevant domestic law.
“Any form of amnesty for such violations would lack legal grounds,” the statement says.
The statement mentions deceased media workers such as Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was tortured to death in a Russian prison in 2024, French photojournalst Antoni Lallican, and the Ukrainian reporters Alyona Hramova and Yevhen Karmazin, who were killed in Russian drone strikes in October 2025.
As of November 2025, the MFRR has also documented 53 cases in which Russian armed forces destroyed Ukrainian media infrastructure. We further note that peace discussions this month follow one of the deadliest periods for journalists in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. As reported by monitoring bodies in Ukraine, this increase in targeted attacks on journalists wearing PRESS vests has created an increasingly dangerous security situation for journalists and media workers reporting from the front lines.
“We therefore strongly urge all parties involved in peace deal discussions – including the U.S. and the E.U – not to agree to any measures granting amnesty for war crimes committed against journalists, as civilians. Any such concessions would dramatically undermine international treaties and international humanitarian law, set a dangerous legal precedent, and send a signal to the world that attacks against journalists and civilians can go unpunished,” the statement says.
As reported earlier, the Institute of Mass Information recorded considerable losses for the media community in October 2025: three journalists died while reporting and two more were injured. A new trend has emerged: Russian troops targeting journalists with drones such as Lancet or FPV away from the front line.
