Journalist wounded and translator killed in Kherson

Italian journalist Corrado Zunino was wounded and the reporter’s interpreter Bohdan Bitik was killed this Wednesday in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, allegedly as a result of an attack by Russian troops. Zunino, a special envoy for the La Repubblica newspaper in an area where fighting has intensified in recent days, was shot in the shoulder after an “ambush likely set by Russian snipers,” the newspaper, based in the Italian capital, said.

“We were hit, I saw Bogdan on the ground, he didn’t move, I crawled out of the line of fire. I ran until I hit a civilian car,” explained Corrado Zunino. “[Bogdan] I was covered in blood, I was taken to the Kherson hospital. I tried several times to call Bogdan, he did not answer. He was a great friend of mine, it’s a huge pain,” the reporter said in a phone call to La Repubblica in Rome.

The two journalists worked properly identified and protected by bulletproof vests, and it was this equipment and security that saved Corrado Zunino. Authorities are now trying to find the interpreter’s body, a difficult task given the presence of Russian fighters.

Ukrainian troops, we recall, for the first time since the beginning of the war, occupied a part of the left bank of the Dnieper from the Russians in one of the areas where the most fierce battles were fought since the beginning of the war, in February last year.