Ukrainian journalist Oleksandr Makhov killed near Izyum

Makhov was a participant in the war in Donbas in 2014 as a military correspondent. Born in Luhansk Oblast, in 2022 he went to the front to defend Ukraine.

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“Oleksandr is a talented journalist who decided to choose to defend the Motherland on the front line against the Russian aggressor at the time of martial law and active hostilities,” the Dom editorial office says.

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Colleagues recall that they dissuaded him from military journalism until Feb. 24.

“He is our hero, ‘military correspondent Makhov’, as he called himself at the first meetings, and until Feb. 24, 2022, the entire editorial office tried to dissuade him from military journalism and switch to documentary journalism from Feb. 24, 2022,” the message says.

However, Makhov insisted on Feb. 24 that he would go to the front to defend Ukraine against Russian invasion.

“The essence of Sasha’s character manifested itself in the very first days of the war - he, as always, clearly, and in a military restraint manner told the editors that he was going to the front, where a terrible line of struggle has opened up for the right to existence of such editorial offices like ours, for the principles by which we live and which they want to take away from us: freedom of speech, an independent and democratic Ukraine,” the Dom editorial office said.

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It said that “Sasha knew that he was moving forward to protect those behind.”