Latest news with #MariaZakharova
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Ukrainian drone attack on Kursk injures Chinese reporter
A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Kursk region on the border with Ukraine injured a war correspondent from the Chinese news outlet Phoenix TV, Russian authorities said late on Thursday, urging the United Nations to respond to the incident. 'A Ukrainian drone today struck the village of Korenevo in the Korenevsky district,' acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on the Telegram messaging app. 'A 63-year-old correspondent, Lu Yuguang, who went to the border area on his own, was injured.' Khinshtein said in a later post that the journalist had skin cuts to his head and after treatment, refused hospitalization. Russia's foreign ministry called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international organizations to 'promptly respond and give a proper assessment' of the incident. 'The targeted attack .... indicates the intention of the Kyiv regime to silence and de facto destroy representatives of any media that seek to convey objective information,' Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry's spokeswoman, said in a Telegram post. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate response from Ukraine's foreign ministry and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office to Reuters' request for comment outside business hours. Phoenix TV reported the incident but has not issued a separate statement. According to Russia's state and official media outlets, Lu has been reporting on the war since its early days. Russia launched the war with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. Lu told Russia's state news agencies that he was feeling fine. 'Western journalists are not visible at all (in Kursk),' Lu said in a video posted by TASS on social media, with his head in bandages, 'We, Chinese journalists, want to convey what happened in the Kursk region.' Russia and Ukraine have launched numerous cross-border attacks since the start of the war. Parts of Kursk were seized and occupied by Ukrainian forces in a surprise offensive in August 2024 before they were driven out earlier this year.
Reuters
a day ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Ukrainian drone attack on Kursk injures Chinese reporter, Russia says
June 27 (Reuters) - A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Kursk region on the border with Ukraine injured a war correspondent from the Chinese news outlet Phoenix TV, Russian authorities said late on Thursday, urging the United Nations to respond to the incident. "A Ukrainian drone today struck the village of Korenevo in the Korenevsky district," acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on the Telegram messaging app. "A 63-year-old correspondent, Lu Yuguang, who went to the border area on his own, was injured." Khinshtein said in a later post that the journalist had skin cuts to his head and after treatment, refused hospitalisation. Russia's foreign ministry called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international organisations to "promptly respond and give a proper assessment" of the incident. "The targeted attack .... indicates the intention of the Kyiv regime to silence and de facto destroy representatives of any media that seek to convey objective information," Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry's spokeswoman, said in a Telegram post. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate response from Ukraine's foreign ministry and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office to Reuters' request for comment outside business hours. Phoenix TV reported the incident but has not issued a separate statement. According to Russia's state and official media outlets, Lu has been reporting on the war since its early days. Russia launched the war with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. Lu told Russia's state news agencies that he was feeling fine. "Western journalists are not visible at all (in Kursk)," Lu said in a video posted by TASS on social media, with his head in bandages, "We, Chinese journalists, want to convey what happened in the Kursk region." Russia and Ukraine have launched numerous cross-border attacks since the start of the war. Parts of Kursk were seized and occupied by Ukrainian forces in a surprise offensive in August 2024 before they were driven out earlier this year.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Chinese journalist injured in Ukrainian strike on Russian region
Chinese journalist Lu Yuguang was injured in a Ukrainian drone strike in Russia's western Kursk Region, officials have said. The reporter told TASS that a UAV struck while the Phoenix TV crew was filming an interview with local residents. According to Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein, Lu was taken to hospital with head injuries. He added that Ukrainian forces targeted the village of Korenevo, located less than 30 kilometers from the border. The journalist told TASS he refused hospitalization because his injuries were 'light' and he 'had a lot of work here.' The Russian news agency published a video of Lu with a bandaged head. Lu expressed 'deep gratitude' to Russian combat medics, who treated him at the scene and stitched his wounds. 'There was a lot of blood,' he said, adding that the medics initially feared the injuries were more serious. According to Lu, a first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drone hit the crew as they were speaking to locals outside their homes. 'We were recording a standup when an FPV drone flew by. And that was it,' he told TASS, noting that he was wearing a press vest. 'They did not care.'Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the attack as a 'terrorist act.' 'The targeted strike on a Chinese news crew shows Kiev's intent to silence and effectively eliminate any media workers seeking objective coverage of the conflict,' she wrote on Telegram. Lu, 63, is a veteran military correspondent who has worked in Russia since the early 2000s. He covered the 2004 terrorist attack on a school in Beslan and has received numerous awards for his work. Since 2022, he has been reporting on the Ukraine conflict, including from the front lines. This is not the first time journalists have been targeted by Ukrainian forces. In March, a Russian Izvestia newspaper crew was hit by artillery fire, killing a journalist, cameraman, and driver, and severely injuring another reporter. Two days later, a Channel One correspondent was killed while on assignment in Russia's Belgorod Region bordering Ukraine.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
US and Israel dealt ‘colossal damage' to UN nuclear watchdog
The US and Israel have undermined the credibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by using the agency's information to plan attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Israel launched strikes on Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure on June 13, a day after the IAEA's Board of Governors passed a resolution declaring Iran to be in breach of its Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations – an accusation Tehran denies. Last week, the US carried out extensive airstrikes targeting three Iranian nuclear facilities. 'The fact that Iranian nuclear facilities under the control of the IAEA have become targets for American and Israeli missiles is an open challenge to the NPT,' Zakharova said in a press briefing on Wednesday. The UN nuclear watchdog's own resolutions declare attacks on nuclear sites illegal under international law. The attacks posed 'real obstacles' to implementing agreements between the IAEA and Tehran, she added. The credibility of the agency's global verification system, which was used as a source of information for planning the bombing, is in question. Therefore, the US and Israel are 'responsible for colossal damage to the IAEA's activities, no matter how hard they try to blame Tehran,' Zakharova said. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, European leaders pressured IAEA chief Rafael Grossi into publishing a negative report on Iran, which was later used to justify an IAEA Board of Governors resolution accusing the Islamic Republic of breaking the NPT. The West 'exerts very serious influence on international organizations,' and most of these bodies are no longer unbiased, he said on Tuesday. Grossi admitted just last week that the agency had found no evidence that Iran had a 'systematic plan' to build a nuclear weapon but expressed concern about Tehran enriching uranium to 60% purity. The fissile material needs to be enriched to 90% to be considered weapons grade. The Iranian Parliament has voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the Islamic Republic is given security guarantees for its nuclear facilities. The bill currently awaits ratification by the Supreme National Security Council to be made law. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran will also need to reconsider its NPT cooperation. 'Twenty years of transparency and trust-building regarding Iran's peaceful nuclear program' have not yielded results, and this issue will be addressed, he told New Arab on Tuesday.
LBCI
2 days ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Russia says will disregard new special Ukraine tribunal
Russia said Thursday that it would disregard rulings by a new special Ukraine tribunal after an accord to create it was signed by the Council of Europe and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "The work and decisions of this body will be meaningless to us. We will regard the accession of any state to it as a hostile act," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists. AFP
