Translated material
Living bosses
"He was not a military journalist. But when he was called and offered to go on a business trip, he agreed right away."
This is from a report on the deceased Igor Korneluka. The report was made by his colleagues from the Rossiya channel. By coincidence, literally the day before, I spoke with the head of one large company, whose journalists also work in the east of Ukraine. He told what fear the company suffered with the wound of one of them. The man was on a hair from death. He saved the body armor. And I asked: why do you continue to send them there? It is clear how high the degree of risk is. He was surprised: "Always sent. Such work is a military correspondent." I agreed. Yes, there is such a job. Such a specialization. There are people in the editorial offices who are torn to war. There are people with great experience in hot spots. And he is right: it was always like that.
But what happened to Igor Kornelyuk did not fit into this professional scheme at all. He was not a military correspondent. He had no experience at war at all. This was said by his own colleagues. He graduated from the Institute of Culture in St. Petersburg. He worked in the Yamal shopping center for many years. He even led the children's edition, as they emphasized. Last fall, he went to increase: he became his own correspondent for the Rossiya channel in Murmansk. Again: made quite peaceful reports: courts, sailors, ships ...
Today they twist the shots on which Igor is there in this war. On some of these frames, he stands in a helmet with letters TV and in a body armor. But there are others about which his colleagues say with admiration: "Even in the zone of hostilities, Igor wrote standaps in a white shirt and a tie." And with horror I see how this clean, neat, unrightened, unprotected Igor sneaks behind a fighter in camouflage, in a mask, with an automaton in his hands, as this fighter sits down, aims, and Igor repeats his movement behind him. And yes - in a shirt and in a tie!
And all this shooting is seen by its leaders. And, it seems, they are silent, do not "stick" the first number. And today they still show all this to us - as an example of the civilian and intelligence of the deceased guy. And I want to ask them (this will not help him anymore-but can help those who still stay there): at least security instructors somehow work with them? They are at least somehow taught how to behave in the combat zone?
If he was pulled in time with all these "shirts", maybe it would not have happened what happened: on a tragic day, the crew of the Rossiya channel left for this dangerous, shot area without body armor and without helmets . Oleg Shishkin, a special correspondent of Channel One, says this: "Usually he left for filming in the armored vehicle and in the helmet, but this time the journalists decided to leave them in the hotel. They said that the work was a few and they would quickly return."
And therefore, of course, the thesis that it was on them that was carried out aimed fire, that, they say, the forces of the National Guard "made out that their vests were largely indicated that these were employees of the media" (I quote the journalist of the Russia-24 channel)-of course, nonsense. Even if they were in the staged helmets (and I still saw the letters TV in one of the plots on the helmet, but not on the vest), it would be impossible to discern these designations, even those colleagues who sincerely sympathize with the separatists laugh at this version. But, nevertheless, it sounds and sounds louder: journalists were aimed at the fact that they were journalists.
But I'm not talking about this today. I'm not talking about the propaganda side of the matter. And I do not want to discuss the content and focus of the plots that Igor Korneluk did. I'm only about how they work there. And why they allow them to work like that.
I really hope that we will get the answer to the question: why did the filming group go to the same point, where did you already make a report yesterday? Why did they take risks again? What kind of editorial tasks are they getting? The host of the Russia-24 channel explained this: "They came here to take off refugees from the village of Happiness." His colleague immediately said something else: "They went to remove the reports about refugees who are trying to break out of the village of Metalist." Then they give the floor to their colleague from the LifeNews channel, which reports another version: “They were not going there. They went to the Stone Brod area to check one information. It was not confirmed. And since the village of Metalist, where the fighting, they decided to go there. Then we called the taxi driver, who brought them to the place. Well, and as usual. The group arrived from the side. The militias (I specially emphasized this. Russian groups, of course, can come only "from the militia") .
This, in general, coincides with what the Channel One correspondent says, that they stopped there for some short-term shooting, and even coincides with what the taxi driver who was driving: "The guys came to shoot, sho there, smoke ..."
Another thing is that like this, accurately, without helmets and body armor, they went to a very dangerous place. What is this place - the same Arthur Matveev explained from the LifeNews channel: “When we worked there, representatives of the militia told us that if you hear such sounds of whistling, then immediately run to the green, go to bed, if possible, you are not on the road. There was shooting there and yesterday, they could shoot in the morning.”
He also said that at this checkpoint they also shot yesterday. And there they met Igor. “He recorded Standap,” Arthur continues. “I asked: you will still work there? He said: No, we were to the base, we shot, went to distill the material.” Why did he return there? For what other damn picture?!
Well, what happened next, in general, could be foreseen in advance. And once again I was amazed that they went to this site without body armor. The investigation will be reconstructed. For readers, I can only convey the facts in the presentation of those whom I heard on TV. Arthur Matveev: “There is a Metalist village on the foothill, which is one way or another in the shelling zone. They arrived and went forward. There, the road is blocked by two“ amphibians ”so that heavy equipment did not pass, and they went through the militia for several meters. And there, on the road, the truck burned. They got into this wagon with a mortar shell. They burned out.
The journalist of Channel One also says that "together with journalists, militias fell under the fire, so far it is known about 25 wounded." That is, it is completely possible that they beat the group of militias. Another thing is that this time there were journalists among them.
The operator Denisov, as I understood, did not go with them, he stayed in Zelenka, with a group of refugees who got out of the nearest village. When the first mortar salvo was heard, the camera continued to work - so we saw shots of other explosions, after which Igor Korneluka wounded, and then his sound engineer Anton Voloshin died on the spot. Then the operator Denisov with refugees and one of the militias "went to forest plantations along the road, and went on the other side, because it was dangerous to our guys (this expression) , mines were torn all the time."
Korneluka was taken to the clinic, where he later died on the operating table. The sound engineer Anton Voloshin, apparently, killed immediately. Yesterday, at 19.48 Moscow time, the Lifenews Channel correspondent told the Russia-24 channel: "After shelling, the ambulance took only the wounded. The dead remained on the road. Then a second mortar shelling began. But now the bodies were removed from there. The body of Anton is in the forensic expertise."
However, I was very surprised that then, when repeated, this part of his story was for some reason cut off. And the channel said for another three hours that "the fate of Anton is unknown," and only at 22.40 they said that Interfax had come, that his body was found on the road where the shelling was. Well, I can’t solve these riddles anymore. I will only say that I am infinitely sorry for this young boy and his parents, one of whom works on Channel One, is endlessly.
... Now they demand "ensure the safety of journalists who work in Ukraine" - from Kyiv. And what did they do in order to provide it? What did they do? They don’t even want to talk about it! Yesterday I listened to how one after another the news of the death of Korneluk was commented on by the leaders of other television companies. The refrain was alone: not a step back. We will not call our filming groups. Because a) our viewers require to stay there; b) Ukrainian authorities dream of our departure so that it is convenient for them to equal the cities with the ground without witnesses; c) together with our journalists we are in the war with fascism.
Regarding the content of the first two theses, you can only shrug. And if the viewers demand a head against the wall - run away and break? And if you call your journalists - in the modern world there will be nothing more to fix, how is the Ukrainian army "smooths cities with the ground"? The third thesis is more serious. In the third thesis, the head of the company already says: we are in the war, we are fighters, we will not leave. But since in your calls to Kiev and to the world community you continue to demand to protect not fighters, but journalists, then I can ask you: why didn’t you say a word to me that you yourself would do so that we no longer mourn our colleagues? Not a word was said about how exactly you are trying to save the life of your employees who continue to work there, and those new ones that you continue and continue to send there. "We stay there" - That's all that was said.
Yesterday, the channel "Russia" tried to pull this idea. “All our employees are in shock,” said Kondrashov, the host of Vesti. “There are a lot of those who went through the North Caucasus, and the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq among us (here I again bitterly thought: what did you send to this war of Igor, who, unlike you, did not smell the gunpowder nowhere!), And we all came to the conclusion that all these hot spots were completely different, there were completely different points. than Ukraine.
I had already said about "aimed" already said that this is their fiction. But I agree that this is a unique war. This is the first war, where Russian journalists are sent illegally, bypassing the borders of the country where they follow. In the border service of Ukraine, I was informed: almost everyone who is now working in eastern Ukraine cross the border in unprotected areas of the Luhansk region. In the east, even those who are officially entered into the territory of Ukraine are prohibited in the east. The editorial management illegally sends them across the border, although this is already extremely dangerous in itself. Not because they will be shot by Ukrainian border guards. "We are not opening fire without warning, like Russian border guards, we do not open it - they told me. - Even if we suspect that these are armed bandits, we first give shots in the air." But there is another risk, they explained. Now within these areas is complete; A lot of gangs that find out the relationship between themselves. Once in this area, a person is already in danger.
This is a war in which Russian journalists - those we are talking about now - are not even trying to cover the conflict on both sides. They are on one side. On the one with which the state is fighting, where they arrived illegally. And therefore the danger is doubly great. You can shout a lot: "Kyiv, do not touch our journalists!" But Kyiv is fighting now. And your journalists are with those against whom Kyiv is fighting. Therefore, their safety is primarily your task. And you can’t cope with her. And ask for their death you need to start with you.
Elena Rykovtseva - Radio Freedom Observer, host of the program "Face to the event"
This is from a report on the deceased Igor Korneluka. The report was made by his colleagues from the Rossiya channel. By coincidence, literally the day before, I spoke with the head of one large company, whose journalists also work in the east of Ukraine. He told what fear the company suffered with the wound of one of them. The man was on a hair from death. He saved the body armor. And I asked: why do you continue to send them there? It is clear how high the degree of risk is. He was surprised: "Always sent. Such work is a military correspondent." I agreed. Yes, there is such a job. Such a specialization. There are people in the editorial offices who are torn to war. There are people with great experience in hot spots. And he is right: it was always like that.
But what happened to Igor Kornelyuk did not fit into this professional scheme at all. He was not a military correspondent. He had no experience at war at all. This was said by his own colleagues. He graduated from the Institute of Culture in St. Petersburg. He worked in the Yamal shopping center for many years. He even led the children's edition, as they emphasized. Last fall, he went to increase: he became his own correspondent for the Rossiya channel in Murmansk. Again: made quite peaceful reports: courts, sailors, ships ...
I don’t know, I can only guess why Korneluk agreed to go to war, under bombs. Maybe I suffered, like any sobcor, from some unclaimed. I do not exclude, this is what meant when he wrote with a sad emoticon on his page in LiveJournal on April 29: "With his material, so far are deaf. Interesting people and events, I ignore me." In addition, Igor's family continued to live in Salekhard all this time. The daughter went to first grade, the wife continued to work there as a lawyer. Probably, it is more difficult to stand up at a distance and say "I will not let it go." And he was interested. And maybe, with this business trip, he associated some career growth. More precisely, only his closest people know about this. I was struck by what the Rossiya channel in the USA said Valentin Bogdanov, who is now on a business trip in Brazil: Igor Kornelyuk called him from Lugansk to Brazil. Probably, he had to say about some important things, if from Lugansk-to Brazil, I thought. Yes, in the end, it is not so important, probably why he agreed. More importantly another: why did the company's management send a person who was completely not prepared for the war?Why did the company's management send a person who was completely unnecessary for it to the war?
Today they twist the shots on which Igor is there in this war. On some of these frames, he stands in a helmet with letters TV and in a body armor. But there are others about which his colleagues say with admiration: "Even in the zone of hostilities, Igor wrote standaps in a white shirt and a tie." And with horror I see how this clean, neat, unrightened, unprotected Igor sneaks behind a fighter in camouflage, in a mask, with an automaton in his hands, as this fighter sits down, aims, and Igor repeats his movement behind him. And yes - in a shirt and in a tie!
And all this shooting is seen by its leaders. And, it seems, they are silent, do not "stick" the first number. And today they still show all this to us - as an example of the civilian and intelligence of the deceased guy. And I want to ask them (this will not help him anymore-but can help those who still stay there): at least security instructors somehow work with them? They are at least somehow taught how to behave in the combat zone?
If he was pulled in time with all these "shirts", maybe it would not have happened what happened: on a tragic day, the crew of the Rossiya channel left for this dangerous, shot area without body armor and without helmets . Oleg Shishkin, a special correspondent of Channel One, says this: "Usually he left for filming in the armored vehicle and in the helmet, but this time the journalists decided to leave them in the hotel. They said that the work was a few and they would quickly return."
And therefore, of course, the thesis that it was on them that was carried out aimed fire, that, they say, the forces of the National Guard "made out that their vests were largely indicated that these were employees of the media" (I quote the journalist of the Russia-24 channel)-of course, nonsense. Even if they were in the staged helmets (and I still saw the letters TV in one of the plots on the helmet, but not on the vest), it would be impossible to discern these designations, even those colleagues who sincerely sympathize with the separatists laugh at this version. But, nevertheless, it sounds and sounds louder: journalists were aimed at the fact that they were journalists.
But I'm not talking about this today. I'm not talking about the propaganda side of the matter. And I do not want to discuss the content and focus of the plots that Igor Korneluk did. I'm only about how they work there. And why they allow them to work like that.
I really hope that we will get the answer to the question: why did the filming group go to the same point, where did you already make a report yesterday? Why did they take risks again? What kind of editorial tasks are they getting? The host of the Russia-24 channel explained this: "They came here to take off refugees from the village of Happiness." His colleague immediately said something else: "They went to remove the reports about refugees who are trying to break out of the village of Metalist." Then they give the floor to their colleague from the LifeNews channel, which reports another version: “They were not going there. They went to the Stone Brod area to check one information. It was not confirmed. And since the village of Metalist, where the fighting, they decided to go there. Then we called the taxi driver, who brought them to the place. Well, and as usual. The group arrived from the side. The militias (I specially emphasized this. Russian groups, of course, can come only "from the militia") .
This, in general, coincides with what the Channel One correspondent says, that they stopped there for some short-term shooting, and even coincides with what the taxi driver who was driving: "The guys came to shoot, sho there, smoke ..."
Another thing is that like this, accurately, without helmets and body armor, they went to a very dangerous place. What is this place - the same Arthur Matveev explained from the LifeNews channel: “When we worked there, representatives of the militia told us that if you hear such sounds of whistling, then immediately run to the green, go to bed, if possible, you are not on the road. There was shooting there and yesterday, they could shoot in the morning.”
He also said that at this checkpoint they also shot yesterday. And there they met Igor. “He recorded Standap,” Arthur continues. “I asked: you will still work there? He said: No, we were to the base, we shot, went to distill the material.” Why did he return there? For what other damn picture?!
Well, what happened next, in general, could be foreseen in advance. And once again I was amazed that they went to this site without body armor. The investigation will be reconstructed. For readers, I can only convey the facts in the presentation of those whom I heard on TV. Arthur Matveev: “There is a Metalist village on the foothill, which is one way or another in the shelling zone. They arrived and went forward. There, the road is blocked by two“ amphibians ”so that heavy equipment did not pass, and they went through the militia for several meters. And there, on the road, the truck burned. They got into this wagon with a mortar shell. They burned out.
The journalist of Channel One also says that "together with journalists, militias fell under the fire, so far it is known about 25 wounded." That is, it is completely possible that they beat the group of militias. Another thing is that this time there were journalists among them.
The operator Denisov, as I understood, did not go with them, he stayed in Zelenka, with a group of refugees who got out of the nearest village. When the first mortar salvo was heard, the camera continued to work - so we saw shots of other explosions, after which Igor Korneluka wounded, and then his sound engineer Anton Voloshin died on the spot. Then the operator Denisov with refugees and one of the militias "went to forest plantations along the road, and went on the other side, because it was dangerous to our guys (this expression) , mines were torn all the time."
Korneluka was taken to the clinic, where he later died on the operating table. The sound engineer Anton Voloshin, apparently, killed immediately. Yesterday, at 19.48 Moscow time, the Lifenews Channel correspondent told the Russia-24 channel: "After shelling, the ambulance took only the wounded. The dead remained on the road. Then a second mortar shelling began. But now the bodies were removed from there. The body of Anton is in the forensic expertise."
However, I was very surprised that then, when repeated, this part of his story was for some reason cut off. And the channel said for another three hours that "the fate of Anton is unknown," and only at 22.40 they said that Interfax had come, that his body was found on the road where the shelling was. Well, I can’t solve these riddles anymore. I will only say that I am infinitely sorry for this young boy and his parents, one of whom works on Channel One, is endlessly.
... Now they demand "ensure the safety of journalists who work in Ukraine" - from Kyiv. And what did they do in order to provide it? What did they do? They don’t even want to talk about it! Yesterday I listened to how one after another the news of the death of Korneluk was commented on by the leaders of other television companies. The refrain was alone: not a step back. We will not call our filming groups. Because a) our viewers require to stay there; b) Ukrainian authorities dream of our departure so that it is convenient for them to equal the cities with the ground without witnesses; c) together with our journalists we are in the war with fascism.
Regarding the content of the first two theses, you can only shrug. And if the viewers demand a head against the wall - run away and break? And if you call your journalists - in the modern world there will be nothing more to fix, how is the Ukrainian army "smooths cities with the ground"? The third thesis is more serious. In the third thesis, the head of the company already says: we are in the war, we are fighters, we will not leave. But since in your calls to Kiev and to the world community you continue to demand to protect not fighters, but journalists, then I can ask you: why didn’t you say a word to me that you yourself would do so that we no longer mourn our colleagues? Not a word was said about how exactly you are trying to save the life of your employees who continue to work there, and those new ones that you continue and continue to send there. "We stay there" - That's all that was said.
Yesterday, the channel "Russia" tried to pull this idea. “All our employees are in shock,” said Kondrashov, the host of Vesti. “There are a lot of those who went through the North Caucasus, and the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq among us (here I again bitterly thought: what did you send to this war of Igor, who, unlike you, did not smell the gunpowder nowhere!), And we all came to the conclusion that all these hot spots were completely different, there were completely different points. than Ukraine.
I had already said about "aimed" already said that this is their fiction. But I agree that this is a unique war. This is the first war, where Russian journalists are sent illegally, bypassing the borders of the country where they follow. In the border service of Ukraine, I was informed: almost everyone who is now working in eastern Ukraine cross the border in unprotected areas of the Luhansk region. In the east, even those who are officially entered into the territory of Ukraine are prohibited in the east. The editorial management illegally sends them across the border, although this is already extremely dangerous in itself. Not because they will be shot by Ukrainian border guards. "We are not opening fire without warning, like Russian border guards, we do not open it - they told me. - Even if we suspect that these are armed bandits, we first give shots in the air." But there is another risk, they explained. Now within these areas is complete; A lot of gangs that find out the relationship between themselves. Once in this area, a person is already in danger.
This is a war in which Russian journalists - those we are talking about now - are not even trying to cover the conflict on both sides. They are on one side. On the one with which the state is fighting, where they arrived illegally. And therefore the danger is doubly great. You can shout a lot: "Kyiv, do not touch our journalists!" But Kyiv is fighting now. And your journalists are with those against whom Kyiv is fighting. Therefore, their safety is primarily your task. And you can’t cope with her. And ask for their death you need to start with you.
Elena Rykovtseva - Radio Freedom Observer, host of the program "Face to the event"