On 21 August 2024, Russian Foreign Ministry speaker Maria Zakharova issued veiled threats at foreign correspondents working near Sudzha, in territory of Russia that Ukraine occupied as part of a recent counter-offensive. In an interview for Sputnik, a Russian state-controlled radio station, Zakharova said:
“And with each journalist, or so-called journalist, or those who work under the cover of Western journalists (…) Each of these cases will certainly be monitored, they will be checked, they will be tracked, this will concern journalists from all countries,” Zakharova said on air.
She added: “Look at what interests Western journalists. Human rights? Or are they interested in the state of the civilian population? Or do they want to talk to people [living in] the civilian infrastructure destroyed by Kyiv regime extremists and terrorists?”
Zakharova’s comments came amidst a Ukrainian military offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, in the course of which Ukraine captured several settlements near its border. Ukrainian and international journalists later arrived to the area to report on the situation. Several days earlier, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) initiated criminal proceedings against Italian journalists who reported from Sudzha.