The journalists, accompanied by the Ukrainian military, crossed the Russian border without authorization and visited the town of Sudzha and nearby villages, the ABC's report said. They admitted that their trip had come with risks, not just from being in a combat zone, but also that they are unlikely to ever be able to set foot in Russia as individuals.
The authors of the report and photos taken on Russian territory are ABC correspondents Kathryn Diss and Fletcher Yeung.
Correspondents from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (labeled a foreign agent in Russia), French newspaper La Croix and Latvian Television, all facing broadcasting and internet access restrictions in Russia, also earlier made unauthorized visits to the Kursk Region. The US outlets like The Washington Post and The Daily Beast, along with the UK newspapers such as The Sun, The Times and The Independent, reported that their journalists had illegally accessed Russian territory as well.
In August, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that each case of illegal entry by Western journalists into the Kursk Region would be reviewed individually, and this applied to journalists from all countries. In the same month, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Italian Ambassador to Russia Cecilia Piccioni to protest illegal entry of a crew from Italian broadcaster Rai, which is also restricted in Russia, who crossed into the Kursk Region to cover Ukraine's incursion.
On August 22, the Russian Federal Security Service initiated criminal proceedings against US journalist Nick Paton Walsh and Ukrainian journalists Olesya Borovik and Diana Butsko for illegally crossing the Russian border in the Kursk Region. Similar charges had previously been brought against Italian journalists Simona Traina and Stefania Battistini. They face up to five years in prison.