Police are investigating 19 cases of journalists in Ukraine being murdered by Russians – OAG

The police are currently investigating 19 cases related to journalists being murdered by Russians in Ukraine over the course of the full-scale invasion.

Such is the response provided by the Office of the Attorney General at IMI's inquiry regarding the progress of investigations into the murders of journalists who died while reporting or as civilian casualties of shelling.

According to the Attorney General, 17 cases under Article 438h.2 of the Criminal Code (violation of the laws and customs of war) are currently under investigation. These cases are about the murders of Yevhen Sakun, Brent Renaud, Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra Kuvshynova (one case), Oksana Baulina, Mantas Kvedaravičius, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, Bohdan Bitik, Arman Soldin, Viktor Dedov, Lilia Humyanova, Yevhen Bal, Roman Nezhyborets, Zoreslav Zamoisky, Natalia Kharakoz, Pavlo Li, Vira Hyrych, and Oksana Haidar.

One case in progress has been filed under Article 115 of the Criminal Code (deliberate murder) – the Maks Levin case. One more is filed under part 5 426-1 of the Criminal Code (acting beyond authority or mandate by a military official), it is about the murder of Dilerbek Shakirov.

At the same time, the criminal case over the death of Kharkiv photographer and video blogger Ihor Hudenko, which had been filed under Article 115 of the Criminal Code, has been closed, as it was established that he died of natural causes. As reported by IMI, Ihor Hudenko went out of contact on February 26, 2022. His body was found on February 27; medics declared the photographer biologically dead. According to the medics' conclusions, his death was not violent.

According to IMI, 67 journalists have been killed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 10 of them died while reporting.

In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian Federation has committed 536 crimes against the media and journalists in Ukraine, according to IMI's monitoring.