More than 500 offences against journalists during the war registered in Ukraine

The National Museum of Ukrainian History in the Second World War has opened an exhibition "Shot Freedom of Speech" in Kiev to mark the Day of Remembrance of Ukrainian journalists who died while performing their professional duties.

The organisers of the exhibition pointed out that since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, 72 Ukrainian and foreign journalists had been killed, 15 of them while performing their professional duties in the combat zone.

The dead and wounded journalists and media workers were subjected to Russian captivity and torture, they were shot at their workplaces," the exhibition documents said.

In addition, during the war, the Russians committed about 500 crimes against freedom of speech and those who represented the media.

For Russian aggressors, journalists are direct targets: they are arrested and tortured, they are killed. Free and independent journalism is a direct threat to Russian propaganda," the head of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Serhiy Tomilenko, pointed out.

Speaking about the exhibition, he noted that all the exhibits on display were real, given by colleagues from the frontline areas of Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Mariupol, Bakhmut and other settlements. Among them are equipment damaged in the performance of professional duties, protective equipment, clothing, memorabilia belonging to dead and captured journalists, documentary video evidence and pictures illustrating the work of Ukrainian military journalists.

Tomylenko pointed out that the NSJU continues to collect evidence of crimes against Ukrainian and foreign media workers committed by the occupants on the territory of Ukraine.