On 26 April 2023, Corrado Zunino, a journalist working for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica was shot at and wounded by Russian forces while reporting near the Antonivskiy Bridge on the outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine. A Ukrainian journalist working as his fixer, Bohdan Bitik, was killed in the attack.
Zunino was wounded in the shoulder, the newspaper said. La Repubblica claimed both reporters were wearing bulletproof vests with “Press” written on them. The attack was carried out “most likely by Russian snipers”.
“I’m well, I’ve got a wound in my right shoulder, shaved by the bullet that hit my great friend Bohdan,’’ Corrado Zunino told La Repubblica. “I crawled until I got out of the line of fire. I ran until I came across a civilian’s car. I was covered in blood, I got myself taken to the hospital in Kherson.”
In a statement, Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said a civilian accompanying a foreign journalist was killed, while the foreign journalist was wounded, as a result of an attack by Russian forces near the Antonivskiy Bridge in the Kherson region.
IMI, a Kyiv-based media freedom defense group, quoted sources among the Ukrainian military claiming that the Italian journalist was wearing a bulletproof vest, while his Ukrainian fixer was not. Both were said to be wearing visible “Press” markings.