MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) — A reporter from Russia’s REN-TV channel was injured in a howitzer projectile blast in Ukraine, near the border with Russia, the TV channel said on its official Twitter account Tuesday.
“Our correspondent was injured in the Luhansk region, about 1 kilometer [0.6 miles] from the Russian-Ukrainian border," the channel said.
“A projectile, presumably from a howitzer, exploded near the journalists. Denis Kulaga suffered a concussion, he has hearing problems and his ears are bleeding,” the channel said, adding that another cameraman also suffered a concussion.
In an official Tweet, the channel later reported that the journalists were on their way to the hospital.
According to Reporters Without Borders, more than 200 journalists have been injured or attacked in Ukraine since the start of the year, when political tensions in the country boiled over resulting in large-scale clashes between the Kiev-led forces and independence supporters in the country’s southeast.
Late on June 29, cameraman from Russia’s Channel-1 television station Anatoly Klyan was fatally shot in Donetsk Region. Prior to the tragedy, on June 17, two Russian journalists were killed in a mortar attack near the Ukrainian city of Luhansk.
The Ukrainian National Guard, after the previous ceasefire was called off, resumed the active phase of Kiev’s military operation in the area of the Donetsk-Izvarino and Krasnopartizansky-Gukovo border control zones in Luhansk Region, the head of Russia’s Federal Customs Service, Andrei Belyaninov told RIA Novosti earlier the same day.
