Russia’s defence ministry says the reporters were evacuated from the battlefield, but RIA correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev died during the journey.

A war correspondent for Russia’s RIA news agency has been killed and three other Russian journalists were wounded by shelling near the front line in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region, Russia’s defence ministry said.

The ministry said the journalists were wounded in a Ukrainian artillery strike on Saturday. They were evacuated from the battlefield but RIA correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev died during the journey, it said.

The agency also reported his death, saying he was killed near the front-line village of Piatykhatky.

“As a result of a strike by the Ukrainian army using cluster munitions, four journalists were wounded in various levels of severity,” the Russian army said in a statement.

“During an evacuation, the RIA Novosti journalist Rostislav Zhuravlev died from his wounds that resulted from the cluster munitions exploding.”

It said the other correspondents have wounds of “medium severity”.

The defence ministry said Ukraine had used cluster munitions in the incident, but did not provide evidence for this and Reuters was not able to verify it independently.

Ukraine received cluster bombs from the United States this month, but it has pledged to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.

Such weapons contain dozens of small bomblets that rain shrapnel over a wide area, but are banned in many countries due to the potential danger they pose to civilians. Ukraine has repeatedly said their use will be limited to the battlefield.

The United Nations has said Russia itself has repeatedly used cluster munitions during the war.