Print
E-mail © Università degli Studi di Padova - Credits: HCE Web agency
Since independence of Ukraine more than 60 journalists died, either during their professional duties or under the mysterious circumstances. Ukrainian government treats them not as performers of professional duty, but as those who serve the government’s needs. Therefore, journalists are often treated as attendants, and used as instruments in political battles. Here is the list of some who were murdered.
Motive Confirmed
• 18April 1995: Volodymyr Ivanov of Slava Sevastopolya, killed in Sevastopol
• 10 May 1996: Ihor Hrushetsky killed in Cherkasy
• 11 August 1997: Borys Derevyanko, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian newspaper, Verchernaya Odessa, shot twice and killed while on the way to an editorial board meeting at his office.
• 16 May 1999: Ihor Bondar director of the AMT television station, was shot and killed in Odessa residential neighbourhood, as he was driving in a car.
• 16 September 2000: Heorgiy Gongadze co-founded a news website, Ukrayinska Pravda, killed in the Taraschanskyi Raion (district) after being kidnapped.
• 7 July 2001: Ihor Oleksandrov, director of the private TV and radio station TOR in Sloviansk, died of injuries sustained on 3 July, when four unidentified men wielding baseball bats attacked him at his office.
• 20 February 2014: Ihor Kostenko, a 22-year-old Ukrainian journalist from the newspaper Sportanalytic, also a geography student and contributor to the Ukrainian Wikipedia. Died during Euromaidan
• 24 May 2014: Andrea Rocchelli, Italian photojournalist killed in unclear circumstances while covering the Siege of Sloviansk. Ronchelli's Russian interpreter, Andrey Mironov, was also killed.
• 19February 2014: Vyacheslav Veremiy, Russian journalist killed in Kiev, Ukraine.
• 17 June 2014: Igor Kornelyuk, Russian reporter died in hospital of wounds sustained previously from mortar fire while covering fighting between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and LPR rebels in the Luhansk Region.
• 29 June 2014: Anatoly Klyan, Russian cameraman for Russia's Channel One was shot in the stomach as the bus he was riding in came under fire by Ukrainian forces near the entrance to a military base in Donetsk.
• 6 August 2014: Andrey Stenin, Russian photojournalist for RIA Novostiin died in Snizhne, Ukraine
Motive Unconfirmed
• 2 June 1995: Viktor Frelix, Freelancer journalist and publisher died in L'vov, Ukraine
• 13 March 1997: Petro Shevchenko, correspondent for the daily Kyivskiye Vedomosti in Luhansk, Ukraine, was found hanging in an abandoned building in Kiev. He had co-authored articles about disputes between the mayor of Luhansk and the local branch of the Ukrainian Security Services.
• 30 November 2000: Yuliy Mazur, died in Odessa, Ukraine
• 27 November 2002: Mykhailo Kolomiets, co-founder of Ukrainian News Agency found dead hanging on a tree in Belarus.
• 24 June 2001: Oleh Breus publisher of the regional weekly, XXI Vek, was shot dead by two gunmen outside his home in Luhansk. He was shot in the head and back at point blank range as he was getting out of his car.
• 14 December 2003: Volodymyr Karachevtsev, deputy editor-in-chief of Kuryer newspaper, was found dead in his home in Melitopol. He was discovered hanging from the handle of his refrigerator.
• 3 March 2004: Yuriy Chechyk, director of Radio Yuta in Poltava, died under suspicious circumstances in a car crash. He was on the way to meet with executives of Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service, which is often critical of the Ukrainian government, to hold talks on rebroadcasting the station's programmes on the more accessible FM band.
• August 2010: Vasyl Klymentyev, a Ukrainian investigative journalist, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novy Stil based in Kharkiv. He went missing in August and is presumed dead. He had been investigating local corruption.
• July 2014: Sergei Dolgov, editor of the Hochu v SSSR ("I want to be in the USSR") and Vestnik Priazovya ("The Azov Region Courier") newspapers, was found dead in a park in Dnipropetrovsk in early July.
