Journalist Oksana Baulina was killed on March 23, 2022, in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, while covering Russia’s attack on the city.
Baulina was working for the independent Latvia-based investigative news website The Insider covering the destruction of a shopping center on the outskirts of Kyiv’s Podilskyi district when a new wave of Russian shelling hit the area, according to a statement by The Insider, media reports, and The Insider deputy editor Timur Olevskiy, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.
The Insider and the independent news outlet Mediazona reported that Baulina and another civilian were killed in that attack, and two police officers accompanying the journalist were wounded and hospitalized.
The Russian military increased its shelling of residential areas in Kyiv earlier on the day she was killed, according to media reports.
On March 24, Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko announced that Ukrainian police had opened an investigation into the deaths of Baulina and the other civilian.
Gerashchenko told The Insider that authorities believed Baulina had been killed by 120-milimeter artillery shells fired from the direction of Moshchun, a town then occupied by Russian forces. He said the shells were fired at a checkpoint near the shopping center.
Baulina covered topics including Russian politics and corruption for The Insider, and previously worked for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. She left Russia before Navalny’s organization was labeled “extremist” in June 2021, and had been living in Poland prior to traveling to Ukraine to report on the war, according to Mediazona.
In a tweet, Navalny press secretary Kira Yarmysh said that Baulina was "brave and honest, a wonderful journalist.”
Mediazona stated on Telegram that Baulina had also worked with that outlet, saying she had been “helping us with video and streaming, and almost everyone in the editorial office knew her at least a little bit.”
“We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including such Russian war crimes as the indiscriminate shelling of residential areas that kill civilians and journalists,” The Insider said in its statement.
CPJ emailed the Russian and Ukrainian Ministries of Defense for comment but did not receive any replies.