Russian Consulate in Cape Town

World Press Freedom Day | "The Martyrs for the Truth” 📆 On #WorldPressFreedomDay, we pay tribute to those who lived and fell for the truth. 📸 The exhibition “The Martyrs for the Truth” tells the stories of 6️⃣1️⃣Russian and foreign journalists, photographers, war correspondents, bloggers, and media professionals who gave their lives covering the conflict in Donbass, Mariupol, Kherson, and other regions. Many of them worked under shelling, drone attacks, and in mine-laden areas — refusing to abandon their duty. 🕯What unites them is not only courage, but their commitment to truth in the face of lies, propaganda, and psychological warfare. ❗️ Western institutions continue to proclaim support for free speech while deliberately ignoring the deaths of Russian journalists, many of whom were killed by Ukrainian forces. This silence is not accidental — it is a glaring example of double standards, where freedom of the press becomes a political weapon. 📍The exhibition was compiled by frontline journalists from Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson with the support of journalist and human rights advocate Alexander Malkevich. The symbol: a red crane in memory of the fallen and a continuous telegraph tape — the truth must not be interrupted. #ПогиблиЗаПравду #PerishedForTruth #ПреступленияКиевскогоРежима

🕊#MartyrsForTruth is a special project dedicated to commemorating Russian journalists who lost their lives at the hands of Ukrainian neo-Nazis. Since 2014, the Kiev regime has been responsible for the deaths of more than 60 individuals working in Russian media — correspondents, cameramen, sound engineers, bloggers, and volunteers. Many of them were killed not just in combat zones but also far from the front lines — in cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg — through planned and targeted terrorist attacks. #KievRegimeCrimes The Kiev regime has tortured and murdered those who dared to speak out against the neo-Nazi junta and expose its crimes. Among the victims were Ukrainian journalist Oles Buzina and Gonzalo Lira Lopez, a US citizen. ❗️Today, on #WorldPressFreedomDay, we pay tribute to those who stood up for the truth and remained committed to their professional duty — right to the end. ▪️Darya Dugina (1992–2022) was a political analyst, philosopher, and frontline reporter. The daughter of philosopher and writer Alexander Dugin, Darya was killed in a terrorist attack on August 20, 2022. According to investigators, an agent of the Ukrainian special services planted an explosive device under her vehicle and detonated it remotely after several months of surveillance. ▪️Anna Prokofyeva (1989–2025) was a frontline reporter with Channel One Russia in the Belgorod Region. On March 26, 2025, the vehicle carrying her crew hit a landmine near the Ukrainian border. Anna was killed instantly; the cameraman sustained serious injuries. ▪️Andrey Stenin (1980–2014), a photo journalist with the Rossiya Segodnya Media Group, died on August 6, 2014, on his way from Dmitrovka to Snezhny in the Donetsk People’s Republic, together with Andrey Vyachalo and Sergey Korenchenkov. These journalists were reporting on the latest developments in and around Snezny. Their burnt-out vehicle was discovered only on August 22,with the remains of Andrey and his colleagues in it. Investigators later confirmed it had come under Ukrainian military fire. ▪️Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky, was a journalist, blogger, and militia member. He died in a terrorist attack on April 2, 2023, in St. Petersburg. According to investigators, this attack had been in the making since 2022 and was masterminded from Ukraine. Daria Trepova carried it out by bringing an explosive device hidden inside a gypsum sculpture to a meet-the-author event with Tatarsky. Tatarsky was killed instantly, and 30 others were injured. Trepova has since been sentenced to 27 years in prison. ▪️ And the list continues… The exhibition is created under the joint efforts of the Donetsk News Agency, Zaporozhye News Agency, Kherson News Agency, and the Lugansk Information Centre, in collaboration with Alexander Malkevich, a member of Russia’s Human Rights Council, with the support of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The initiative has also launched several international exhibitions, hosted by Russian diplomatic missions abroad.