Russian Foreign Ministry: Those Responsible for Death of Sputnik War Correspondent Will Be Punished

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday that those responsible for the death of Sputnik military correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev, including the suppliers of cluster munitions to Kiev, will be punished.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Zhuravlev died during evacuation from injuries caused by cluster submunition explosion and four journalists received wounds of varying degrees of severity.

"Those responsible for the brutal murder of the Russian journalist will be inevitably punished. The entire measure of responsibility will be imposed on those who supplied their Kiev proteges with cluster munitions," Zakharova said in a statement published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.

The spokeswoman added that "everything indicated that the attack on the journalist group was not a coincidence."

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Earlier in the day, Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of Sputnik's parent company Rossiya Segodnya, called Zhuravlev an "experienced professional" and said that the war correspondent was always first to deliver accurate and important data from dangerous areas.

The head of the Russian Union of Journalists, Vladimir Solovyov, has expressed condolences to the family and colleagues of the deceased and said that the union was ready to offer necessary assistance.

"The work of a military correspondent is one of the most dangerous in the world, one of the most dangerous fields of journalism. Sometimes we all lose our friends. I express my deepest condolences to the colleagues, family, and loved ones on behalf of the Russian Union of Journalists. I hope that the injured colleague will recover shortly," Solovyov said.

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the RT broadcaster and Rossiya Segodnya international media group, commented on the news by saying that everyone will be remembered and nothing will be forgotten.

"Our war correspondent, Rostislav Zhuravlev, is dead. Other guys are wounded. Cluster munitions. We'll remember everyone and remember everything," Simonyan wrote on Telegram.