Journalists At War. The Monitoring of Russian Occupiers’ Crimes Against Independent Media in 2026

PEN Ukraine is documenting the losses among the media workers in the Russian war against Ukraine. As of February 3, 2026, 124 Ukrainian and foreign media workers have been killed by Russian occupiers since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) is documenting the losses among the fellow journalists.

January

In Donetsk region, Volodymyr Siniychuk was killed in action on 4 January 2026. He was a serviceman and a photocorrespondent with the local newspaper Ridnyi Kray from Velyka Bahachka village in Poltava region.

Yuriy Mihashko was killed in action in the Sumy direction. He was a production designer at Novyi Kanal and STB. He enlisted in the Defense Forces in March 2022.

Lana Chornohorska, a journalist and a servicewoman of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, was killed in action. She served as a UAV pilot and navigator. Before joining the military, she worked as a journalist for the Kharkiv-based media outlet Liuk and was also an activist and an artist. She was killed on the southern front on 1 January 2026 as a result of a Russian drone strike.