Svetlana Babayeva headed the Rossiya Segodnya media group’s office in Simferopol, the second-largest city on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
A Russian journalist who worked for one of Russia’s biggest Kremlin-backed media groups was killed today in a shooting incident at a military training ground in Crimea, Russian-appointed officials and state media said.
Svetlana Babayeva headed the Rossiya Segodnya media group’s office in Simferopol, the second-largest city on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti, an affiliate of Rossiya Segodnya, reported that Babayeva was killed by a stray bullet during the shooting exercise. He did not provide further details.
Pro-Russian officials paid tribute to Babayeva in social media posts. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, called her death an irreparable loss.
“Svetlana did a lot to convey to the public the truth about what is happening in Kherson province,” said Vladimir Saldo, head of Russian occupation authorities in the southern Ukrainian province of Kherson.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram page: “I love you very much, Sveta.”
Ukraine has imposed sanctions on the Rossiya Segodnya group, calling CEO Dmitry Kiselyov “a central figure in government propaganda supporting the deployment of Russian troops in Ukraine.”
In a statement posted by RIA Novosti, Kiselyov said Babayeva was a “warm person who strongly supported Russia” and “wanted to support our heroes.”
Babayeva was previously head of RIA Novosti’s UK and US bureau and editor of the Gazeta.Ru website, the agency said.
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