Today, on February 16, Ukraine congratulates military journalists, press officers, and civilian journalists who report from the front line on their professional holiday, and honors the memory of their fallen colleagues, UNN reports.
The event was launched by order of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine in 2018.
It was on February 16, 2015, near the city of Debaltseve, when Captain Dmytro Labutkin, 3rd rank, who was the editor of the TV and radio studio of the Ministry of Defense "Briz", died while performing a combat mission and professional duty. Until the last seconds of his life, he continued to film the events.
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, many civilian media professionals have become military journalists and press officers.
Every day, risking their lives, they report from the hottest spots of the frontline and appear on national TV and radio stations to provide Ukrainians with up-to-the-minute information on repelling Russian aggression.
According to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, 79 domestic and foreign journalists have been killed during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 54 of them were media workers who joined the Ukrainian army, 16 were civilian journalists who died while performing their professional duties, and 9 more were simply killed by the Russian occupiers.