Russian state broadcaster Rossiya-24 said Friday that its war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny was discharged from the hospital over a month after being seriously injured in a Ukrainian drone attack.
Poddubny was hospitalized after a drone struck the vehicle he was riding in during a reporting assignment on Ukraine’s surprise incursion into the Kursk region early last month. Initial reports falsely claimed he died in the attack, but authorities later confirmed that he had regained consciousness.
Rossiya-24 aired a segment showing Poddubny leaving Moscow’s Sklifosovsky Hospital, where he was greeted by state television personality Dmitry Kiselyov, who heads the media group that owns the broadcaster.
“I didn’t think that recovery would happen so quickly, but of course, it happened thanks to these specialists,” Poddubny said. “The doctors and nurses here perform real miracles.”
Sklifosovsky Hospital’s chief doctor Sergei Petrikov said there were concerns about Poddubny still having deep burn injuries. In the video report, the journalist appeared with a bandage around his head and burns around his neck and left hand.
“We’re discharging him now, but he’ll be coming back for wound dressings anyways,” Petrikov told Kiselyov.
Last month, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, launched a criminal investigation into the attack on Poddubny, treating it as attempted murder and obstruction of journalism.
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