Russian drone attacks German TV crew reporting in Ukraine

New York, October 29, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for a thorough investigation into a recent Russian attack in Ukraine, which wounded Ivan Zakharenko, a local producer with German media group WELT. 

“The Russian attack on WELT journalists, which injured Ukrainian producer Ivan Zakharenko, is yet another illustration of the extraordinary risks journalists face while covering Russia’s war in Ukraine amid the widespread use of drones,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Journalists are civilians under international humanitarian law and must be able to report safely on the war.”

On October 13, a WELT crew composed of Zakharenko, reporter Ibrahim Naber, and freelance camera operator Viktor Lysenko, came under a Russian Lancet drone attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region, in eastern Ukraine, while filming a report about a Ukrainian air defense unit. Lancets are long-range drones often used against tanks and armored vehicles. 

The strike occurred less than 20 miles from the front line, the outlet reported, adding that it had targeted the unit’s military vehicle. The journalists, who were wearing press markings, were “only a few meters” from the three-person military crew they had just interviewed. The attack killed a Ukrainian soldier and severely injured another. 

Zakharenko suffered “two moderate shrapnel wounds in both legs,” Naber was hit in the ear by shrapnel, and Lysenko suffered a concussion, Zakharenko, who was treated at a hospital, wrote on Instagram on October 28. 

At least 21 journalists and media workers have been killed while reporting since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. In October 2025, Russian drones killed French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, as well as Ukrainian journalists Olena Hramova and Yevhen Karmazin. 

Russia has often hit the offices of media outlets across the country in the more than three-and-a-half-year war. Journalists have been injured while working and their homes have been shelled. 

The Russian defense ministry did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.