“The Ukrainian army launched a drone strike on a civilian car carrying Izvestia’s freelance correspondent Alexander Martemyanov,” the news outlet reported on its Telegram channel.

“The car was located far from the line of contact.”

The vehicle was returning from covering shelling in the Russian-held city of Gorlivka when it was hit, Russia’s state RIA news agency said.

Two RIA journalists were wounded in the attack, the agency added.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the incident “deliberate murder”.

In a statement, she described it as “another brutal crime in a series of bloody atrocities” carried out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government.

The EU blocked Russian outlets – including Izvestia and RIA – in May, accusing them of enabling the “spread and support the Russian propaganda and war of aggression against Ukraine”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 15 journalists have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.