Ukrainian journalist Olena Hramova, also known as Hubanova, was killed in a Russian drone attack on October 23, 2025, while she was reporting for Ukraine’s state-funded international broadcaster Freedom in Kramatorsk, in the eastern region of Donetsk, according to Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin andFreedom.
The attack also killed camera operator Yevhen Karmazin and injured special correspondent Oleksandr Kolychiev.
A car transporting a TV crew from Freedom was hit by a Lancet, a long-range drone often used against tanks and armored vehicles, as the journalists were reporting on the aftermath of October 22’s Russian drone strikeon a gas station in Kramatorsk, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Donbas-focused project Donbas.Realii.
Kolychiev suffered shrapnel wounds and an open fracture, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office. He was in intensive care as of October 25.
Hramova, 43, and Karmazin, 33, had worked for Ukraine’s international state TV channels as a war correspondent and cameraman, respectively, since 2021, Freedom said.
“From the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, they covered the situation in the region, telling the truth about enemy crimes, the evacuation of civilians, and the stories of our defenders,” Filashkin wrote on Facebook. “They worked in the hottest spots of Donbas, and were always the first everywhere.”
“These are not accidents or mistakes, but a deliberate Russian strategy to silence all independent voices reporting about Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X.
Ukraine’s national police said they were documenting the attack. The prosecutor general’s office announcedthe launch of an investigation under Part 2, Article 438 of the Ukrainian criminal code, which pertains to the “violation of the laws and customs of war.”
The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.