Sputnik military correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev, killed by Ukrainian shelling in the combat zone, will be awarded with the Order of Merit for the Zaporozhye region posthumously, alongside three other journalists who were injured with him, Yevgeny Balitsky, the acting governor of the Zaporozhye region, said on Sunday.
"Rostislav Zhuravlev will be awarded posthumously," Balitsky wrote on Telegram.
Several other Russian journalists, including Sputnik photojournalist Konstantin Mikhalchevsky and Izvestia journalist Roman Polshakov, received wounds of varying degrees of severity. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that those responsible for the death of Zhuravlev, including the suppliers of cluster munitions to Kiev, will be punished.