A Russian journalist who worked for the state-run television network Channel One was reportedly killed after her car struck an “enemy mine” in the western Belgorod region, near the Ukrainian border.
Military correspondent Anna Prokofieva, 35, was mourned in a Wednesday statement from her employer, which said she “died while performing her professional duty.”
According to the pro-Kremlin outlet, the explosion also seriously wounded her colleague, cameraman Dmitry Volkov.
Prokofieva had been covering the war since 2023 and was known for sharing stylish images of herself from the combat zones she covered.
In her final social media post on Telegram, shared Tuesday, she posed in military fatigues and a head-mounted camera, captioning the image: “Somewhere on the border with country 404.” The phrase, a reference to the “404 file not found” webpage error, has been adopted by pro-Russian military bloggers as a derogatory term for Ukraine.
Following reports of Prokofieva’s death, which has not been independently verified, Kremlin foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukrainian forces of deliberately targeting Russian journalists in direct violation of international law.
“Journalists could die en masse in connection with a natural disaster,” Zakharova said in a statement quoted by The Telegraph. “Today this natural disaster is called the ‘terrorist Kiev regime.’”
Prokofieva’s death comes amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Kyiv had recently launched a series of small-scale attacks on Belgorod, believed to be an attempt to relieve pressure on the separate Russian border region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces are in the midst of a reported retreat.
The journalist’s death also coincides with fragile ceasefire agreements between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea region. While both nations signed separate deals with the United States on Tuesday, each has accused the other of violating the terms.