At 11.30 on Tuesday, the TV4 News team in Ukraine was exposed to a drone attack. It was when reporter Johan Fredriksson and photographer Daniel Zdolsek were out on assignment in the Zaporizhia region that a missile struck their car.
No one was seriously injured, but the question everyone is now asking is whether the attack was deliberately intended to scare journalists covering the war into silence.
– I consider it a gross and disgusting attack on the part of the Russians. This was a premeditated attack. The purpose is clear. It should be seen as an attempt to kill press and media workers, says Olena Zhuk, Zaporizhzhya regional councilor.
Joakim Paasikivi, lieutenant colonel at the Defense Academy, is on the same track; that it is a deliberate Russian attack on journalists.
– It seems so. With the information I have now, and it’s not very much, I think it seems pretty clear.
Paasikivi: That’s how the attack happened
Paasikivi believes that the most likely thing is that it is a VR-controlled drone, a so-called attack drone.
– Then you usually have a drone that scouts from above and that gives information about what kind of targets there are in the area. Then you have an attack drone pilot who sits with VR glasses, explains the lieutenant colonel.
– So he sees what the camera on the drone sees. He deliberately directs this drone into the target and he sees it all the way to a hit, and as you can see from the car, it means that there is a fairly limited amount of damage.
The attack on TV4’s team took place here
The attack on TV4’s team took place here
Small charge
Paasikivi believes that it is a relatively small explosive charge – and that whoever fired it had full control of exactly what the target consisted of.
– In general, you can definitely read the car’s license plate and the word “press” on the protective vests, he says.
On Tuesday evening, Johan Fredriksson says that the team is doing well, but that he feels mentally battered after what happened.
– And also pissed off that a permanent member of the UN Security Council has a military that deliberately attacks media on site in a war zone. It’s actually terribly bad, he says directly from the Zaporizjijza area.