Russian forces attacked a humanitarian mission vehicle with a drone in Donetsk Oblast on the morning of 8 November, according to Yevhen Tkachov, head of the Proliska humanitarian mission in the region.

The incident occurred at the entrance to Kostyantynivka. The vehicle, marked with humanitarian mission insignia, was carrying volunteers Yevhen Tkachov and Oleh Tkachenko, along with journalists from Austria (Christian Verschütz) and Spain. The group was planning to film a report about evacuations.

"We were going as volunteers to evacuate people: we had four or five addresses with chaplain Oleh Tkachenko in his armored vehicle. At the entrance to Kostyantynivka, in the Novosilivka area, we had just turned, drove around the corner and saw a drone on fiber optics hovering 10 or 15 meters away. When we saw it, we stopped the car, and it started moving. We jumped out of the car and at that moment it attacked the emblem," Tkachov said, Suspilne reported.

According to Tkachov, the Russians deliberately targeted the vehicle with a drone—hitting directly on the humanitarian mission emblem and damaging the engine. He believes the Russians used an FPV drone on fiber optics with a cumulative RPG warhead: the vehicle was burned through completely, but no one was injured.

The damaged vehicle has been removed from Kostyantynivka, and officials are now determining whether it can be repaired. Tkachov said that last week, Russians twice attempted to attack Proliska's vehicle, but were unsuccessful.

The Austrian journalist worked for ORF, which published video footage of the damaged vehicle.

On 18 July, Russian forces dropped an aerial bomb on Kostyantynivka and attacked a volunteer vehicle with a drone. One woman died. On 23 October in Kramatorsk, a journalist and cameraman from the Freedom channel were killed when Russia struck their vehicle with a drone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 authorized the ordering of at least two attempts to assassinate Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Gordon, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Maliuk told media on June 23,  RBC-Ukraine reports.

Gordon is a prominent journalist and media personality popular in both Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries, known for his sharp criticism of Russian aggression. His YouTube channel has 4.5 million subscribers.

"Gordon triggers Russians. He has a large audience in Russia and in the (Russian) occupied territories (of Ukraine)," Maliuk said. "There are two networks that worked on Gordon that we can speak (publicly) about."

According to the SBU, the first network was led by a former lawmaker from the now-banned pro-Russian Party of Regions, originally from Poltava Oblast. The agency did not name the lawmaker.

The former MP was allegedly tasked by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) with coordinating surveillance and preparations for a strike that would kill Gordon.

"The plan was to use a homemade explosive device or coordinate a missile or a drone strike — but only if Gordon's presence in the targeted house was confirmed," Maliuk said.

The SBU had already been investigating the ex-lawmaker for involvement in a separate railway bombing case in Poltava Oblast when the assassination plot was uncovered. The group was arrested before executing the plan.

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The second assassination team, Maliuk said, was a criminal group from Dagestan working secretly for the FSB under the cover of being fugitives from Russian law enforcement.

"They sent this individual here long before the full-scale war. He carried out FSB tasks all the time — very professionally, very covertly," Maliuk said.

The group monitored Gordon's movements and residence, planning to assassinate him either with a short-barreled weapon if he was alone, or with a rifle and follow-up pistol shot if accompanied by a bodyguard.

The SBU detained the group, and its leader confessed to preparing the hit on Moscow's orders. He said he had been promised $400,000 for the killing.

Gordon, who has become a high-profile figure on Ukraine's information front, regularly uses his platform to expose Russian disinformation and advocate for Ukrainian sovereignty.

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The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has issued layoff notices to over 600 employees of Voice of America (VOA), dramatically reducing the outlet's staff to fewer than 200, the New York Times (NYT) reported on June 20.

VOA, launched in 1942 to counter wartime propaganda, has long been a central pillar of U.S. public diplomacy, broadcasting in 49 languages to more than 360 million people worldwide.

Trump's crackdown against Voice of America has been celebrated by Russian propagandists, who welcomed the cuts to the network.

The dismissals, described as reductions in force, affect both journalists and support staff, who will remain on paid leave until Sept. 1. The cuts are the biggest rollback of the federally funded broadcaster in decades, reducing its staff to one-seventh of what it was at the start of 2025.

The Trump administration's move follows months of attrition at the agency. In February, the outlet employed approximately 1,300 staff. Since then, programming has been slashed, with broadcasts now limited to just four languages.

The decision to dismantle VOA has met legal challenges.

On April 22, a U.S. federal judge ordered the administration to reinstate all employees and contractors, ruling that the mass dismissal likely violated U.S. law. However, a federal appeals court overturned that order, allowing the layoffs to proceed.

The Trump administration temporarily reinstated several staff members from VOA's Persian-language service amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. But at least two of those individuals also received layoff notices on June 20, according to the NYT.

Trump has repeatedly attacked U.S.-funded media outlets over their coverage, often referring to them as "fake news." His administration has framed the VOA cuts as a cost-saving measure and a response to what it views as politically biased reporting.

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