The three Russian media professionals were killed in what the local authorities described an ambush by an unidentified group of armed men near the village of Sibuti. Director Alexander Rastorguyev, reporter Orkhan Dzhemal and cameraman Kirill Radchenko, who worked for Russian online news organisation Investigation Control Center (TsUR), were slain on the spot while their driver survived the attack.
According to TsUR, the three journalists were in the war-torn country to work on a documentary about the activities of the Wagner Group, a paramilitary mercenary company which has ties with the Kremlin and has carried out clandestine combat missions on its behalf in eastern Ukraine and Syria, according to Reuters’ sources. The Russian authorities denied this accusation.