“The Russians are shooting at everyone. They shot at doctors, and now they shoot at the press,” said wounded Italian journalist Corrado Zunino

“I have a blue jacket with a large inscription reading ‘Press’… But the Russians shoot at everyone, they shoot at doctors, and now they shoot at the press. I have lost count of the missing and dead journalists and photographers,” Corrado Zunino, the correspondent of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, who was wounded yesterday, commented on yesterday’s shelling near the Antonivskyi Bridge in Kherson. The Italian journalist was wounded and a Ukrainian fixer was killed in this shelling.

On the way to the Odesa hospital, where he was given medical care, Corrado Zunino gave a comment to the Adnkronos publication. According to him, he received four wounds: one bullet in the shoulder and three more – during the fall. According to the Italian journalist, he was hit by a bullet that had passed through the body of his Ukrainian friend and fixer, Bohdan Bityk.

“The situation in the city of Kherson was quite calm; I heard two or three shots far away, on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River, which the Russians control. So, we got to the bridge…,” said Corrado Zunino. After leaving the car, he and Bohdan set off on foot. “We left. The Ukrainian military were shouting at us: ‘Go away!’ We left immediately. I heard them say, ‘Press.’ While I was behind, Bohdan was still standing with his chest facing the Russian side. At that moment, I heard a hissing sound and what I can define as a burning sensation on my shoulder. And I saw how Bohdan fell to the ground.”

Then, Corrado Zunino began to act as he was taught on the courses for front-line journalists and left the firing zone. He turned to see what happened to Bohdan, still lying on the bridge. The shelling lasted for quite a long time, and the fixer remained where he was. Therefore, Zunino believes that Bohdan died.

“I am devastated by Bohdan‘s death,” the journalist said. “We made five trips together.”

He also added that they twice asked for permission to work in Kherson but apparently did not receive it. However, they had general permission and reached the city without any obstacles.

“I was treated perfectly in Kherson. They are taken by ambulance to an Odesa clinic,” said Corrado Zunino.

Later, he told Radio Capital that he had known Bohdan since he first came to Ukraine. Bohdan returned to his homeland from Indonesia, where he had a wife and a son. Corrado Zunino had already talked with his colleague’s wife after his death on the Antonivskyi Bridge.

“We have never been exposed to an unreasonable risk. There was no atmosphere of war; there was silence on that bridge… Now I am in a military hospital in the south of the country; I have four minor injuries. But it will be possible to start the transfer for my return to Italy in a few hours,” he said in today’s morning broadcast.

Meanwhile, NUJU sources in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) say that the media persons did not coordinate their actions with the military. However, the AFU does not provide official information at the moment. The Prosecutor General’s Office informs that a civilian was killed and a journalist of a foreign publication was injured in the shelling of the Antonivskyi Bridge in the Kherson Region. The respective investigation is underway.

Ukrainian journalist/executive director of the Academy of Ukrainian Press Andrii Kovalenko, who worked in Kherson almost simultaneously as Bohdan Bityk, helping to conduct filming for Italian television, called his death “senseless” in a comment for the NUJU.

“As far as I know, the fixer did not have accreditation to work in the war zone; he and the journalist did not have approval from the military to work in Kherson,” Andrii Kovalenko said. “It was extremely imprudent to go out on the Antonivskyi Bridge. The work rules in “red zones” are not someone’s imagination; they are written on blood. The Antonivskyi Bridge is such a dangerous area that even a roadblock cannot be set up there because it will be immediately destroyed. Obviously, it was for this reason that the Italian journalist and his Ukrainian fixer could travel to this zone. And the worst thing is that the fixer didn’t wear any means of protection!”

Andrii Kovalenko also added:

“It was difficult to work on the Kherson axis because it required additional approvals, and now the rules will be tightened so that both Ukrainian and foreign journalists will have great problems getting access to Kherson.”

The NUJU considers the murder of Ukrainian producer Bohdan Bityk and the wounding of Italian journalist Corrado Zunino during their journalistic work in Kherson as another Russian war crime and evidence of the dangers of the journalistic profession. The NUJU expresses its deepest condolences to Bohdan‘s family and loved ones and wishes Corrado Zunino a speedy recovery.

“The NUJU thanks the courageous Italian journalists who work on the front lines,” emphasizes NUJU President Sergiy Tomilenko. “At the same time, we appeal to the Italian trade unions, which are members of the European and International Federations of Journalists, and to the la Repubblica publication with a call to guarantee the protection of the rights of the Ukrainian fixer as a member of the Italian media team.”

“The ambush of Corrado Zunino and the death of Bohdan Bityk is terrible news,” twitted the President of the Italian National Press Federation and Rai journalist Vittorio di Trapani. “And it reminds us of the fundamental role of people working on the ground to inform us about wars.”

The European and International Federation of Journalists joined the NUJU and the Italian National Press Federation in expressing their deepest condolences to the relatives and colleagues of Bohdan Bityk and their solidarity with Corrado Zunino.

NUJU information service