We of the Free Press Are in Russia’s Crosshairs
By: Giorgio Provinciali
* The original article: https://medium.com/@giorgioprovinciali/we-of-the-free-press-are-in-russias-crosshairs-5c86facf3729?sk=58467633d24a889aec2ce2cf4e7ca4e2
Live from Ukraine
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Khmelnytskyi — In a Facebook post, the 4th Separate Heavy Brigade announced in the past few hours that, following a targeted Russian attack with an FPV drone, French journalist and photographer Antoni Lallikan was killed last Friday, and his Ukrainian colleague Hryhorij Ivanchenko of “The Kyiv Independent,” who was working with him at the time, was injured. «Both journalists,» the report states, «were wearing personal protective equipment, and their bulletproof vests bore the identifying word ‘PRESS’.» The tragedy occurred near Druzhkivka, a town south of Kramatorsk, from which we have been writing for this newspaper in the last few weeks and more widely throughout the war.
We personally documented Russian crimes and, thanks to our constant presence on the ground, debunked a large amount of fake news spread by the Kremlin and shared in the West by many compliant media. Just before writing this article, we learned that in order to save our colleague Ivanchenko’s life, his leg had to be amputated—there was no other option. We also discovered that the Russian military has upgraded its FPV drones to the point where they can strike even the center of Kramatorsk while connected to a fiber optic cable. This indicates that violations of international law, like the one just described, will become more common, and the attack on that city’s hospital, which happened just yesterday using a UAV, is proof of this.
As we have documented in several recent video reports recorded from there for the YouTube channel and the website of the Italian newspaper “La Ragione,” the Ukrainian Defense Forces have broken through the bulge where several groups of Russian raiders and saboteurs had managed to wedge themselves near Dobropillia, regaining control of another 3 square kilometers of territory less than 24 hours ago.
Despite this, the Russian Federation continues its assaults: 188 breakthrough attempts, including 4,373 bombings on Donetsk yesterday alone, were, according to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russian response to the so-called Western ‘peace efforts.’ Against that part of Ukrainian Donbas — from which we recorded our latest videos — the Russians launched 5,857 kamikaze drones yesterday alone, destroying a branch of Nova Poshta and leaving Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Kostiantynivka in the dark. Taking advantage of the worsening weather conditions, they also launched a mechanized assault against the latter city but ended up losing tanks, armored personnel carriers, MT-LBs, and other infantry vehicles to fire from drones belonging to the Ukrainian Phoenix unit.
While we were documenting on the ground the quagmire into which Putin has plunged the Russian army, which is failing to make progress, the Council of Europe (Pace) focused its autumn session on the enormous difficulties faced by reporters, journalists, correspondents, and others like us who have been working in war zones for years, highlighting those among them who have been killed or imprisoned.
As of June 25, 2025, UNESCO reports 22 «deaths in the line of duty,» while the Institute of Mass Information — which also considers media workers who have lost their lives covering the war in Ukraine since 2014 — counts 113, with 106 dying after 2022. Another 26 remain unjustly imprisoned by Russian authorities, who, in most cases, continue to subject them to torture, often fatal.
Those of us doing this work often pay the highest price for fighting on the only front where Russia is advancing: the information front.
Our war is incredibly challenging, and, as Pace observers remind us, the human toll is very high. A pen is our only weapon against an enemy that doesn’t look anyone in the eye and shoots.
For us freelancers, there is no coverage. Our families receive no reimbursement or compensation when they lose loved ones. Often, there is not even recognition. No official funeral ceremony honors those who not only did not flee the war but also fought it unarmed. For years, often voluntarily. Maybe starting from those ‘Beautiful Countries’ where many Ukrainians who avoided their duty with increasingly unclear excuses and extenuating circumstances, fled.
Because of this, we support the initiative by Alberto Barachini, Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers with responsibility for the Press, made in collaboration with the Farnesina, which aims to create a system of training, protection, and insurance for freelancers who, like us, risk their lives daily to deliver genuine information to the free world.
自由媒體身處俄羅斯的槍口之下
作者：Giorgio Provinciali
烏克蘭現場報道
（圖：一輪悲傷的月亮和我們的兩輛車正在等待更多的防禦係統 – 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
Khmelnytskyi—第四獨立重型旅幾小時前在Facebook的一個貼文中發布稱，上周五法國記者兼攝影師 Antoni Lallikan在俄羅斯FPV無人機進行有針對性的襲擊中被殺，而當時與他一起工作的《基輔獨立報》的烏克蘭同事Hryhorij Ivanchenko 受傷。“兩位記者”，報告指出，“都穿著個人防護裝備，他們的防彈背心上都印有‘PRESS’字樣。”這場悲劇發生在克拉馬托爾斯克以南的德盧伊科夫卡小鎮附近，在過去的幾周裏，我們一直在那裏為本刊撰寫文章，在整個戰爭期間更都在周邊活動。
（圖：Antoni Lallikan 的設備 – RBC提供照片）
我們親自記錄了俄羅斯的罪行，並且由於我們經常在現場報道，揭穿了克裏姆林宮散布的大量假新聞，以及許多合作媒體在西方傳播的假新聞。就在撰寫本文之前，我們得知為了挽救我們的同事 Ivanchenko 的生命，他的腿不得不被截肢——別無選擇。我們還發現，俄羅斯軍方已將其FPV無人機升級到可以通過光纖電纜連接打擊克拉馬托爾斯克市中心的程度。這表明，像剛才描述的那樣，違反國際法的行為將變得更加普遍，而昨天剛發生的使用無人機襲擊該市醫院的事件就是證明。
（圖：Alla 在烏克蘭 Velyka Chernetchyna 報導 – 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
（媒體內容：我在烏克蘭多布羅皮利亞錄製了這段影片—版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
（媒體內容：我在烏克蘭多布羅皮利亞錄製了這段影片—版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
（媒體內容：我在烏克蘭波克洛夫斯克地區錄製了這段影片—版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
正如我們最近在那裏為意大利報紙 “La Ragione” 的YouTube頻道和網站錄製的幾段影片報道中記錄的那樣，烏克蘭國防軍已經突破了幾組俄羅斯突襲者和破壞者設法楔入多布羅皮利亞附近紮根的突出處，在不到24小時前重新控製了另外3平方公裏的領土。
盡管如此，俄羅斯聯邦仍在持續攻擊：據烏克蘭總參謀部稱，僅昨天在頓涅茨克俄軍就發動了188次突擊嚐試，其中包括4,373次轟炸，這是俄羅斯對所謂西方“和平努力”的回應。針對烏克蘭頓巴斯地區（我們從那裏錄製了最新的影片），俄羅?人昨天就發射了5,857架神風特攻隊無人機，摧毀了新郵政的一個分支機構，並使斯洛維揚斯克、克拉馬托爾斯克、德盧伊科夫卡和科斯季安丁尼夫卡陷入斷電。俄軍還利用不斷惡化的天氣條件，對科斯季安丁尼夫卡發動了機械化攻擊，但最終因來自烏克蘭鳳凰部隊的無人機的打擊而損失了坦克、裝甲運兵車、MT-LB 和其他步兵車輛。
（圖：Alla 在進入冬天的頓巴斯一所被俄羅斯人摧毀的烏克蘭學校裏躲避俄軍襲擊，結束了艱難的一天 – 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
（圖：圖中Alla 指向赫爾鬆的 Antonicskyj 大橋。烏克蘭最危險的地方之一 – 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
當我們在實地記錄普京將俄羅斯軍隊拖入的泥潭、而俄軍未能取得進展時，歐洲委員會（Pace）將其秋季會議的重點放在記者、新聞工作者、通訊員以及像我們這樣多年在戰區工作的人所麵臨的巨大困難上，並強調了其中那些被殺害或俘虜的人。
（圖：一個漫長而悲傷的紀念碑，獻給那些為保衛烏克蘭而失去生命的人們，其中有當地719 位英雄的照片。這張照片是在撰寫本文時在烏克蘭赫梅利尼茨基拍攝的 – 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
截至 2025 年 6 月 25 日，聯合國教科文組織報告了22 例“因公殉職”的媒體工作者，而大眾資訊研究所（該研究所也考慮到自 2014 年以來在報道烏克蘭戰爭中喪生的媒體工作者）統計了 113 例，其中 106 例在 2022 年之後死亡。另有 26 人仍被俄羅斯當局非法監禁，在大多數情況下，俄羅斯當局對他們持續實施酷刑，而且往往是致命的。
（圖：Alla在蘇梅一棟倒塌的建築物後麵躲避空襲，當時俄羅斯無人機正在頭頂飛行 - 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
我們這些從事這項工作的人，往往為在俄羅斯唯一正在取得進展的戰線作戰而付出最高的代價：信息戰線。
我們的作戰極具挑戰性，正如 Pace 觀察員提醒我們的那樣，人員傷亡非常高。筆是我們對抗不用眼睛看到對方就開槍的敵人的唯一武器。
而我們這些自由媒體人，更是沒有任何保障。我們的家人在失去親人時不會收到任何撫恤或補償。通常，甚至沒有任何追記。沒有官方的葬禮來紀念那些不僅沒有逃離戰爭，而且還手無寸鐵地與之作戰的人。多年來，這些人通常是自願的。也許從那些“美麗的國家”開始，許多逃避職責的烏克蘭人以越來越不明確的借口和情有可原的情況逃離了。
（圖：我在俄羅斯襲擊烏克蘭蘇梅期間 - 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
正因為如此，我們支持意大利部長理事會主席團副國務秘書 Alberto Barachini 與 Farnesina 合作提出的倡議，該倡議旨在為像我們這樣每天冒著生命危險向自由世界提供真實資訊的自由職業者建立一個培訓、保護和保險體係，他們每天冒著生命危險向自由世界提供真實的信息。
（圖：Alla 在蘇梅的比洛皮利亞一家民用基礎設施（一家麵包工業生產基地）進行報道 – 版權所有，Giorgio Provinciali）
