In Ukraine for the independent media “The Insider”, the 42-year-old journalist was killed on Wednesday in Kyiv. At least six reporters have died since the Russian invasion began in late February.
She had to flee her native Russia to avoid losing her freedom to the Kremlin. But it was in Ukraine, under the bombs of Moscow, that she lost her life. Journalist for independent online media The Insider, Oksana Baulina was killed on Wednesday in Kyiv, in the historic district of Podil. According to a statement released by her employer, she had gone there to film the damage caused by a previous strike when she was hit by a rocket blast. Another civilian was killed, and two people accompanying him were injured.
Oksana Baulina, 42, was not destined to be a war journalist. If the profession of reporter has always interested her – “I dreamed of being a journalist since I was 12”, she wrote in a Facebook post last year – it was first in lifestyle magazines that she made a career. For ten years, she wrote for the Time Out Moscow and for the Russian version of the women’s fashion monthly InStyle.
A very close to Navalny
Her life then took a much more political turn when she became a producer for the FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation), the NGO of opponent Alexei Navalny who denounced the repeated shenanigans and fraud orchestrated by Vladimir Putin and his entourage. His activism earned him a few stays in prison, notably when the Russian police stormed the headquarters of the foundation, reports the Guardianwhere she was coordinating the live broadcast of a rally.
In 2021, while Alexei Navalny is already behind bars, a Moscow court declares “extremists” all of its organizations. To continue to freely criticize the Kremlin and investigate corruption, Oksana Baulina decides to leave Russia. She continues to work for The Insiderspecializing in the investigation and decryption of Russian fake news.
Since the beginning of the war, she divided her time between Lyiv and Kyiv, where she tried to tell, like many, the daily life of Ukrainians under the bombardments. Just minutes after Vladimir Putin announced the invasion, she tweeted: “War is not a mistake. War is a crime. […] Until recently, I didn’t believe an attack on Ukraine could happen, and yet it is happening right now. It’s a huge pain!”
A few weeks earlier, Oksana Baulina was still hopeful in a Facebook post, convinced that one day “Russia will definitely be free and happy and Alexei free” because “love is always stronger than fear“. She was also delighted to be able to continue to exercise “his favorite job with fucking colleagues”. A job she was “proud”which had “sense” which ultimately cost him his life.
Pressure on journalists increases
His memory has been hailed by many journalists and those close to Navalny. “The Russian army has killed one of the best elements of Russia. I hope Putin, his puppets and all Russian soldiers will burn in hell soon”, tweeted Anastasia Karimova, program director at the Foundation for Democratic Development in Washington. “We will continue to cover the war in Ukraine, including Russian war crimes as well as the indiscriminate bombing of residential areas that causes the death of civilians and journalists”for his part hammered The Insider.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, at least six journalists, including three foreigners, have been killed in the country: a Franco-Irish cameraman from Fox News and a Ukrainian who accompanied him, an American documentary filmmaker, two other Ukrainian journalists and Oksana Baulina.
On several occasions in recent weeks, journalists have reportedly been targeted by Russian forces simply for doing their job. This was the case of the Swiss photojournalist Guillaume Briquet, who told Freed having suffered bullets in the south of the country when he was clearly identifiable, or even Associated Press reporters, tracked down in the streets of Mariupol.
The NGO Reporters Without Borders reports other pressures on journalists. Russian forces reportedly took hostage in Ukraine the father of Svitlana Zalizetska, director of the main independent newspaper in Melitopol, in the south of the country. Sometimes the story ends well: Victoria Roshchyna, a journalist for Hromadske media in southeastern Ukraine, was released on Tuesday after seven days in captivity. To get out of it, she had to record a video in which she thanks the Russian forces for saving her life.