At least 567 crimes and violations have been committed against journalists and the media in Ukraine, in occupied territories by Russia in the last two years.
According to a monitoring report by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, at least 70 media workers have been killed.
"In the two years of the war, Russia killed a total of 70 media workers in Ukraine. 10 of them died while reporting, 47 were killed as combatants, 13 died by Russian shelling or torture," the report says.
"In the 10 years since the start of the Russo–Ukrainian war (2014–2024), a total of 77 Ukrainian and foreign media workers died; 13 of them were killed while reporting."
About 18 per cent of Ukrainian territory is occupied by the Russian armed forces, including the autonomous republic of Crimea, annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014, parts of the Donetsk region and most of Luhansk region, and parts of Kherson, Mykolayiv, and Zaporizhzhya regions that were invaded in 2022
IMI's head of freedom of speech monitoring department Kateryna Diachuk in the report notes that eradication of independent journalism in Ukraine’s occupied territories has been a part of Russia’s war on Ukraine since 2014.
She adds that following the full-scale invasion in 2022, it has been happening even in the territories controlled by Ukraine.
"Murder, abduction, death threats, arresting mass media representatives – here is but a short list of the crimes against the media committed by the occupiers,” she said.
The reports further said that since February 24, 2022, 42 shelling strikes on journalists by Russia were recorded. The strikes targeted journalists for Ukrainian and foreign outlets.
At least 30 journalists were wounded while at work, out of whom 14 were injured during the second year of the invasion.
"For instance, multiple Ukrainian and foreign journalists were injured on December 30, 2023, and January 20, 2024, when the Russian army deliberately targeted the Kharkiv hotels where foreign journalists usually stay. At least five media workers were injured by these strikes.
"Moreover, the IMI experts recorded four cases of media workers being abducted in the second year of the war. These include the Ukrainian journalists Victoria Roshchyna (who went missing in the occupied territories) and Iryna Levchenko (kidnapped by the occupiers in Melitopol together with her husband). Their whereabouts are still unknown," the report said.
According to the director of IMI, Oksana Romaniuk, Russia employs various forms of violence to purge the information space in Ukraine’s occupied territories completely.
She insisted that Journalists play a key role in exposing Russia’s war crimes and defending human rights.
“The IMI monitoring shows that the journalists who make trips to the front line to bring the true picture of the war to the world are often targeted by Russia.
"It is crucial that international organizations, governments and the public make every possible effort to defend journalists in wartime, ensure their safety, provide them with protection and support,” Oksana noted.
IMI recorded 69 Russian cyber attacks on Ukrainian media (22 incidents in 2023) targeting outlets’ websites and social media, interrupting TV broadcasts, spreading Russian propaganda, creating clones of popular online outlets to post fake news and sow panic among Ukrainians.
Offices of at least 27 Ukrainian media outlets were seized by Russians, and At least 234 more media outlets shut down completely or in part in the two years of the war.
Russia also maintains pressure on freedom of speech and continues the systemic violations of journalists’ rights in Ukraine’s occupied territories.