Russian TV Reporter Killed by Mine Near Ukraine Border

MOSCOW, 26 March 2025 (BSS/AFP) – A military correspondent for Russia’s Channel One television has been killed by a mine on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine, her employer confirmed on Wednesday.

The tragic incident occurred in the Belgorod region, located just across the border from Ukraine. Channel One issued a statement confirming the death of Anna Prokofieva, a 35-year-old war correspondent who had been covering the ongoing conflict in Ukraine since 2023. The channel stated that Prokofieva and her crew were performing their professional duties when their vehicle struck an enemy mine.

Cameraman Dmitry Volkov, a colleague of Prokofieva, was also injured in the explosion but is reported to have survived the attack.

Prokofieva’s last post on Telegram, shared on Tuesday, showed her in military fatigues, sitting in a forest with a head-mounted camera. She appeared to be smiling in the photo, which was captioned: “Somewhere on the border with country 404” – a derogatory term used by pro-Kremlin sources to refer to Ukraine.

Prokofieva’s death adds to the toll of Russian journalists who have lost their lives in the conflict. On Monday, a war correspondent from the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia was killed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, highlighting the ongoing dangers faced by reporters in the war zone.

Since Russia’s military offensive began in February 2022, at least 21 journalists have been killed, according to the International Federation of Journalists, underlining the risks faced by those reporting from the frontlines of the conflict.