Zaluzhny thanks war correspondents and press officers "for their service and for the truth"
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhny, thanked war correspodents and press officers "for their service and for the truth", noting that they make the Ukrainian Armed Forces "a real brand with an unprecedentedly high level of trust."
Zaluzhny wrote about this on his Telegram channel on the occasion of the Day of Honoring Military Journalists in Ukraine.
"Thank you, dear war correspondents and press officers, for your service and for the truth! Thanks to you, Ukraine and the entire free world know the names and faces of their defenders. You are recording the history of our fight and of the coming Victory. You are making the Ukrainian Armed Forces a real brand with an unprecedentedly high level of trust. I wish you the quickest Victory! Strength and stability, inspiration and unshakable faith!" noted Zaluzhny.
At the same time, he honored the memory of the fallen. Zaluzhny recalled that on February 16, 2015, 3rd rank Captain Dmytro Labutkin, a correspondent for the Defense Ministry's TRC "Bryz", died in the line of duty near Debaltseve.
"War is taking away the best of us. Just in the course of Russia's large-scale armed aggression, 8 journalists have been killed while carrying out their professional work, and 24 were killed as combatants in the ranks of the Ukrainian Defense Forces or as by enemy shelling," Zaluzhny wrote.
According to IMI, 47 media workers have died since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Of those, eight died while performing journalistic work, 39 died as combatants or were killed by Russian shelling, not in the course of their journalistic work.
Dmytro Labutkin was a reporter for the Ukrainian Navy's television and radio company "Bryz" in Sevastopol. During the occupation of Crimea, he and his family left for Odesa, where "Bryz" relocated to. Labutkin went missing on February 16, 2015 near Debaltseve (Donetsk oblast). The search for him had been ongoing since then. In March 2015, the body of Dmytro Labutkin was found in a morgue in Dnipro.
In 2018, the then Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Stepan Poltorak, declared February 16 as the Day of Honoring Military Journalists in Ukraine.
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