Journalists and civilians alike have been spreading the truth about what’s happening in Ukraine through social media — what Ukrainian cabinet minister Mykhailo Fedorov calls a different type of war effort. “We are trying to bring the truth to the Russians and make them protest against the war,” he told the BBC.
It’s easy to understand why Russia, who relies heavily on propaganda, would want to target those trying to spread the truth about what’s happening in Ukraine. They aren’t the first to target journalists, either; according to a 2012 New York Times report, Israeli Defense Forces called journalists killed by targeted bombings in the Gaza Strip “people who have relevance to terror activity.”
This is what we know about what happened to Benjamin Hall
One of those casualties includes the first foreign correspondent killed in the combat zone. Brent Renaud had been in Kyiv filming people crossing through a checkpoint when he and director Juan Arredondo were attacked, per CBS News. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said Renaud “paid with his life for attempting to expose the insidiousness, cruelty, and ruthlessness of the aggressor” (via People).
