My reflections on Ukraine’s murder of 30 Russian journalists, the most recent being a talented journalist I had the honour of meeting & working with, Nikita Tsitsagi, 29, a Russian photojournalist.

Just over two weeks after another Russian journalist was deliberately targeted and killed by Ukrainian forces, global media and most international journalist support groups remain unsurprisingly silent.

Nikita Tsitsagi, 29, a Russian photojournalist, was targeted by a Ukrainian drone on June 16 as he prepared to do another report from the St. Nicholas Monastery near Ugledar—a monastery, heavily-targeted by Ukrainian shelling over the years. Yet, civilians remain the region, and many have taken shelter in the monastery. These are often the focus of journalists who go there.

Just three days prior, Ukrainian forces targeted Russian NTV journalists filming in the extremely hard hit village of Golmovsky, east of the northern DPR city of Gorlovka. The Ukrainian drone strike killed cameraman Valery Kozhin and seriously injured Alexey Ivliyev, a war correspondent.

The targeting of journalists is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

In June, President Vladimir Putin spoke of Ukraine’s targeting of Russian journalists, noting, “At least 30 people died, our journalists died, and no one gives us the opportunity to investigate what happened to them.”

Russia’s Envoy to UNESCO in Paris called for UNESCO to condemn the killing of Russian journalists, saying:

“All these killings, they were not condemned. This is despite the fact that the Secretariat has all the information on their killings.” He noted the lack of condemnation shows double standards and a political bias.

It is sadly another case of only some journalists lives matter.

Nikita's murder is personal for me, as I’d met him several times and gotten to know his gentle character: kind, humble, generous with his time, and professional.

We went together on two different occasions in November 2022 to interview people, one of which was to the Ukrainian-battered villages of Zaitsevo and Golmovsky in the Gorlovka region. Nikita kindly translated my questions to residents there, giving of his time and ensuring no nuance was lost.

He also was quick to reply the few times I messaged him regarding an event in the Donbass or a contact I asked to speak with.

His journalism covered military aspects, as well as humanitarian issues. One of his reports from July 2023 was from the same St. Nicholas Monastery where he was ultimately killed. I know the monastery, in June 2022, I went there with other Russian journalists. Ukrainian forces started shelling, apparently having spotted the van we arrived in. We sheltered, along with civilians living nearby, in the basement stairwell until the shelling subsided.

Nikita’s July 2023 report, showed people taking cover in the same stairwell from the Ukrainian shelling. Then, he and those he accompanied courageously went to the home of elderly nearby, to evacuate them. Even if you don’t understand Russian, watching his report you can see his focus is on the suffering of civilians..."
ingaza.wordpress.com/2024/07/03/ukr… Portuguese journalist @bcarloscarvalho, who has reported extensively from the Donbass, knew Nikita. He told me:

“Ukrainian propaganda said he was a Russian propagandist. This is not true. He told me he came to Donbass to see with his own eyes what was happening. He came to find the truth, and to show the truth as journalist. Ukraine committed a war crime killing him and other journalists as well. They bombed hotels full of journalists.”

Hunting journalists

Bombing hotel housing journalists is definitely one of Ukraine’s tactics. In June, 2022, using 155 mm caliber NATO standard shells, Ukrainian forces targeted directly next to the central Donetsk hotel numerous journalists were in, including myself. As I wrote at the time, it was plausible that Ukraine deliberately targeted a hotel known to house journalists.

However, there were certainly many other very clear instances of Ukraine deliberately targeted journalists in hotels they were known to be staying in, most notably that of the Kherson hotel RT war correspondent Murad Gazdiev and his crew were in when in September 2022 Ukrainian armed forces hit it with an American HIMARS missile.

Miraculously, the crew emerged from the rubble relatively unscathed. But one civilian (the hotel was full of civilians), ex-Ukrainian Rada deputy Zhuravko, was killed, along with his guard.

Throughout the second half of 2022, there were many reports of Ukrainian targeting the three main hotels in Donetsk known to house journalists.

Likewise, there are many clear examples of journalists coming under fire while reporting who thankfully were not killed. Too many to list here, I’ll note just a fraction of these instances.

In December 2022, RT correspondent Maxim Toury and his colleagues were targeted by Ukrainian shelling. He wrote of the incident:

“They filmed the work of our units. We were traveling in a civilian car, but, apparently, this did not prevent the Armed Forces of Ukraine from opening fire on the exact place where we were. There were at least 15 arrivals. Thank God, our team was not injured, but, unfortunately, there are injured among the escorts who were with us.”

In August 2022, Izvestiya journalists filming a report near Ugledar, were deliberately targeted.

“Ukrainian armed forces observed the journalists from a drone and then began bombing. Two hours later, a video from the same drone appeared on the Ukrainian segment of TikTok. ‘Here are the correspondents. There are guys in civilian clothes,’ says the Ukrainian drone operator.”

Long time French-Russian war correspondent Christelle Néant and colleague Laurent Brayard came under intensive Ukrainian shelling while covering earlier shelling in a district of Petrovsky, western Donetsk in June 2022. Her car was destroyed.

Screw youtube.

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Please note: I do EVERYTHING myself, so am working on tidying up the above less-developed Odysee & Rumble accounts. Will update here when I add new platforms.t.me/Reality_Theori…
odysee.com/@EvaKareneBart…
rumble.com/c/c-2030196
ingaza.wordpress.com/about-me/ My Donbass videos playlist.

odysee.com/@EvaKareneBart…

Following my re-visits to Crimea & Donbass, I've finally found the time to stitch together some of my footage from Mariupol!

The city is brimming with life & construction. This short clip is a taste of what I saw in my recent visit, with a couple of clips from visits last year & late 2022.

I'll be putting together more videos from my last visit—there is so much construction that's happened since I visited last year. I was astonished.

For a city "destroyed" (as Western mouthpieces claim), Mariupol is pulsing with life.

https://x.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1796560867666149740

Example of Israeli soldiers implementing Israel's "kill zone" procedures.

Not new, not since October 7.

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1773276685082751434

I've written about this Israeli sadism at length, mostly from Gaza & frequently after having come under Israeli fire when with Palestinian farmers on their land.

ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/los…

Western hypocrites who don't recognize the legitimacy of Russia's presidential election did the same re the Donbass (& co) 2022 referendum to join Russia, the Syrian presidential elections (2021, 2014), the 2014 referendum for Crimea to join Russia...
t.me/Reality_Theori… 2014
ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/syr…

Meet some unsung heroes in Donetsk who (at potentially great personal risk of being shelled by Ukrainian forces) volunteered to go door to door in Kievsky district of Donetsk to enable people who could not go to voting stations to be able to vote from home
t.me/Reality_Theori…






I met these wonderful women in September 2022, when they were doing the same courageous work during the referendum on whether to join Russia.


Kievsky district is one of the hardest hit Donetsk areas, constantly shelled by Ukrainian forces, acts of...t.me/Reality_Theori…

I'm back from a visit to Canada, to finally see my elderly mother & brothers again--who I haven't seen in 4 years.

*Last 3 photos are Toronto's seedy Yonge street (a main street) & subway. No contrast to any of Moscow's beautiful main streets & infrastructure.
[CONTINUES]





I hesitated to visit given: how fascist Canada has become; Canada's unabashed support to Nazis in Ukraine; the state media (CBC) smear of me for my reporting from the Donbass & reporting on Ukraine's war crimes


ingaza.wordpress.com/the-donbass-my…
ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/08/10/wha…

Excellent @RealScottRitter

"With Israel & Gaza, we're talking about genocide. Real genocide...not the nonsense that propagandists put out about what Russia did with Ukraine, I'm talking about genuine targeted genocide of the Palestinian people.
rumble.com/v461gar-biden-… @RealScottRitter "We cannot support this wanton slaughter of innocent civilians.
...You have NO principle when you support the genocide of the Palestinian people, which is happening today.
...'We care about peace,' (Blinken) says, yet we supply Israel with the weapons & we continue to supply..."

The shills for Israel justify Israel's criminal attacks on & maiming and killing Palestinian medics (against international law) by claiming the ambulances were carrying weapons.

They are LYING.

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1712735828076531930

https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1729115354629337482

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1712735828076531930

What he said about difficulty of moving around in the West Bank due to the endless Israeli checkpoints & roadblocks is v true, as are his points about the violence of the illegal colonists against Palestinian civilians. I saw a lot of this during 8 months in the West Bank, 2007.

https://twitter.com/UNRWA/status/1728355182323601817

opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/huw…

Israel does NOT adhere to so-called humanitarian truces: In January 2009, when Palestinians thought they could go get food, water, clothes, or flee to another area during a supposed humanitarian truce, Israel killed a youth with a precision drone strike. ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/all…

https://twitter.com/jordannewsdaily/status/1722646006787878939

The family were sheltering at Fakhoura school, they returned to their home to get clothes--during a 3 hour ceasfire--& Israel began shelling.

“We were very frightened, we'd thought the cease-fire meant we could return home safely."

They left quickly...
ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/all…

This is EXACTLY what they do.

In 2007, in the West Bank, I took countless testimonies of Palestinians who were terrorized by such Israeli tactics. And in some villages, I witnessed the Israeli army invade, sirens blaring, shooting up Palestinian homes. Collective terrorizing.

https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1721259708617486444

"...During one late-night invasion, Israeli army jeeps park in front of the building in which I stay. Soldiers spread out, some heading for the old town streets, others milling by the jeeps, others disappearing around the..."
t.me/Reality_Theori…

This is Israeli policy. Destroy every means for Palestinians to earn a living or bring food to the table. From 2013:

ingaza.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/isr…

Israel targeted this same school with 4 shells in 2009, knowing it was then, too, housing displaced Palestinian civilians.

The (2009) shelling killed 39 civilians immediately, 3 others died at hospital from their wounds.

https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1720712783359103170

I went there (2009): "Nidal, a medic: 'I was there, talking with friends, only a little away from where 2 of the missiles hit. The people standing between me & the missiles were like a shield. They were shredded. About 20 of them.'
ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/aft…

ISRAEL TARGETING PALESTINIAN MEDICS AGAIN:

"Israel opened fire on an ambulance while its team was evacuating injured to hospital.

The shooting led to injuries among paramedics, and damage to the ambulance. One of the paramedics was hit in the head."
Via: t.me/QudsNen/85244






Just to be clear, Israel always targets Palestinian medics, this isn't new.

In 2009, an Israeli sniper fired at least 14 shots at @PalestineRCS medics I was with, hitting 1 medic in the leg, the bullets coming up to the ambulance.

@FiorellaIsabelM @Marwa__Osman @VanessaBeeley

Yes, I'm very aware that Israel treated terrorists & sent them back to slaughter more Syrian civilians.

My 2018 article from Hadar, a southern Syrian village (then) under attack by al-Qaeda in Syria (& other terrorist factions) & by Israel.
ingaza.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/wel… I cited the heroic Syrian journalist, Sedqi al-Maqt, from the occupied Syrian Golan, spent 27 years in Israeli prisons for his resistance to the Israeli occupation of Syrian land, released in 2012.

Maqt began filming the “joint cooperation between,” Israeli soldiers & al-Qaeda

I've interviewed Palestinian (mostly elderly) civilians (in Nablus & in Gaza) who were held for several days or more by Israeli soldiers who didn't give them food, medications, and who abused them.

Pretty sure handshakes were not exchanged...

https://twitter.com/Dimaq389484111/status/1716726266270019812

(2007)

"One Nablus old city resident was held captive in one room of her home, along with approximately 40 other family members & neighbours, from Wednesday evening until Friday morning. During their captivity, residents were neither given food or water
opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/07/01/nab…

Israel's blocking of the entry of the most basics of life (medicines, water, electricity, food) into Gaza didn't start 2 weeks ago. It started 16+ years ago.

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1716383841454010714

ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/obs…

After over 15 years of having a Youtube account, now, while Israel is genociding Palestinians, Youtube has suddenly closed my account completely.

This is not coincidental. I had many videos which I took in Gaza, under Israel's bombs in 2009 & 2012...

...showing the reality of the terror Palestinians endured under relentless Israeli bombing & sniping.

I backed everything up on Odysee


...but now all of my documentation of Israeli war crimes from 2009 & 2012, linked in my blog & articles...odysee.com/@EvaKareneBart…

During Israel's horrific December 2008/January 2009 bombardment of Gaza, I rode in ambulances of Palestinian medics, primarily the Palestinian Red Crescent but also sometimes government ambulances.

THERE WERE NO WEAPONS IN THE AMBULANCES.
WE WENT TO THE AREAS HARDEST HIT BY...

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1712726994113135076

...ISRAELI BOMBING, AT GREAT PERIL, GIVEN ISRAEL **DOES** TARGET MEDICS.

During that war on Gaza, Israel murdered 23 medics & injured 50 more.

1 of the murdered was a medic who I accompanied. Next day, killed by Israeli-fired dart bomb.

ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/isr…

@JTA_Fire @AllisonPearson @VanessaBeeley @av Warning, distressing images:

ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/whi…






@JTA_Fire @AllisonPearson @VanessaBeeley @av ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/whi…