On 4 April 2024, two early morning drone strikes hit Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, injuring Yuliya Boyko, a correspondent with the Ukrainian news site Novini.Live and a freelancer with Poland-based independent broadcaster Belsat TV. Viktor Pichugin, a reporter with the Nakypilo, a local news media project covering the Kharkiv region, was also injured in the attacks, according to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), a trade union, the Institute of Mass Information(IMI), a Ukrainian press freedom group, and multiple Ukrainian media reports.
Boyko was reporting at the site of a previous drone strike on her home in Kharkiv when another attack hit “5-6 meters” away from her, she told NUJU. Additionally, IMI reported that Boyko did not have time to take cover. She suffered barotrauma and a mild concussion as a result of the attack.
Pichugin was reporting on the damage caused by the drone strike on Boyko’s building and on the work of volunteers providing first aid, when the second strike came “very close to him,” he told IMI and local news outlet Gwara Media.
“At some point, the ‘air raid’ signal rang out, and the medics gave the command, ‘Everyone to [their] cars!’”, Pichugin said. He added that he heard the drone flying toward them as he was taking refuge in the back seat of a car with medics.
“When that last medic closed the trunk, the drone exploded. We were thrown by an explosive wave across the cabin,” Pichugin told Gwara Media, adding that his helmet was knocked off his head as a result of the explosion.
The journalist told several Ukrainian media outlets that he might have suffered from a concussion, but that doctors had not yet officially communicated a diagnosis to him.
Pichugin also told IMI that he believes that so-called “double-tap” strikes target journalists documenting the Russia-Ukraine War, as well as rescue workers helping wounded civilians.