Ukrainian journalist shot dead by Russian snipers in ambush near Kherson

 

Bogdan Bitik, working with reporters for Italian newspaper La Repubblica, has been killed by Russian snipers in an ambush near Kherson in southern Ukraine, while his Italian colleague Corrado Zunino sustained injuries to his shoulder and is now in the civil hospital in the city.

Bitik, who had a son with his wife, was working as a fixer for Zunino, La Repubblica said on Wednesday. Zunino, who had extensively covered the year-long brutal invasion, told the newspaper he had been wearing a bulletproof vest with "press" on it when they were attacked.

The Italian journalist has got a wound on his right shoulder, shaved by the bullet that hit Bitik. "I crawled until I got out of the line of fire. I ran until I came across a civilian's car ... I got myself taken to the hospital," he added.

Further elaborating on the incident, Zunino tried several times to call Bitik, but he didn't answer. He was on the ground and wasn't moving. La Repubblica said it's currently difficult to recover the Ukrainian journalist's body due to the presence of snipers.

Meanwhile, Antonio Tajani, Italy's foreign minister, said his ministry and the Italian embassy in Kyiv were working with authorities in Ukraine at the moment to help Zunino get back to Italy.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at least 12 journalists and media workers have been killed in the war-ravaged nation, with 18 injured, the International Federation of Journalists says. Most of the victims were Ukrainian.

A week after the start of the war, Evgeni Sakun, working as a cameraman for the local Kyiv Live TV, was killed when a Russian missile hit the Kyiv television tower on March 1.

Roughly 10 days later, prominent American filmmaker and journalist Brent Renaud was killed while reporting in a suburb of Kyiv. He had grabbed several awards for his work and had played significant roles at many American news and media organisations, including HBO and NBC.