On 28 January 2025, a Russian drone exploded “several centimetres” from a car carrying two freelancers near Pokrovsk, which as of January-February 2025 is located several kilometres from the front line separating Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Donbass region. The attack took place on a road outside Pokrovsk, at a railway crossing. Inna Varenytsia and Zoryana Stelmakh were not injured in the incident, however their car was damaged.
The journalists reported on the attack only on February 17, when Varenytsia published a post on Facebook. According to her, the car’s trunk, its stop lights and right side were damaged in the explosion, but the journalists were still able to use the vehicle to return to Kyiv. While IPI was able to confirm which media outlet the journalists were working for at the time of the attack, this information was not confirmed publicly, possibly due to issues with freelancer insurance and repair costs for the journalists’ car.
According to Varenytsia, her and Stelmakh’s car was not marked as “PRESS”, however both reporters were wearing protective equipment commonly used by journalists. Additionally, Varenytsia claimed that Russian forces had on the same day used drones to attack two cars carrying civilians and clearly marked as being used for that purpose, at the same location, due to which she claimed that “even if [their] car was marked [as PRESS], Russian forces would have still attacked it.