Since dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials have been falling out of windows often enough to warrant a cushion outside every building in the Kremlin.
On Friday, the list of disappeared officials got a little longer.
Zoya Konovalova was editor-in-chief at one of Russia’s state-run media, and she was reportedly found dead Friday alongside her ex-husband Andrey Gubatiyka. She was 48.
Since around 2003, Konovalova had been working in the Krasnodar region, across a bridge from war-torn Crimea
For a year, Konovalova had editing digital content for a TV station, the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Kuban, according to Newsweek‘s review of local media.
The TV station announced the news Monday to U.S. media.
“The head of the Internet group of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Kuban Zoya Konovalova has died. Our colleague was 48 years old,” the station said in a statement. “The cause of death is said to be poisoning.”
Take a look —
☠️ Russia: Propagandist Zoya Konovalova, editor-in-chief of the Kuban State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, found dead in her home with her ex-husband. Cause of death: Poisoning by an unknown substance. pic.twitter.com/jNb8ELM9po
— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) January 7, 2024
Neither Konovalova nor Gubatiyka showed any visible injuries, according to state-run newswire RIA Novotsi.
Konovalova and her ex-husband, 52, are survived by a 15-year-old daughter and an adult son, according to the station. They’ve joined other journalists like Anna Tsareva, the Komsomolskaya Pravda’s editor-in-chief reportedly found dead last month at 35.
What’s more, Konovalova died during a crucial moment for Krasnodar in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War.
Ukraine has pushed into Crimea, a peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. On Thursday and Friday, authorities suspended bridge traffic between Crimea and Krasnodar, impacting a supply link for Russia’s war effort.
Kyiv has been targeting the Moscow-annexed peninsula and taking the 22-month war well beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Russian air defenses downed dozens of Ukrainian drones in Crimea and Krasnodar on Friday, officials said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its defenses intercepted 36 drones over Crimea and one over Krasnodar, part of an emerging pattern of intensified Ukrainian aerial attacks in recent days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to hit more targets on the Crimean Peninsula and inside Russian border regions this year. The goal is to unsettle Russians as Putin seeks another six years in power in an “election” on March 17.
A Ukrainian attack on military facilities in Crimea on Thursday affected a command center and the peninsula’s air defense system, according to a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern joint forces, Nataliia Humeniuk.
She said the Russian military recently relocated its Crimean launch sites for Shahed drones.
Given the war’s clouding effects and Russia’s propaganda machine, it remains very difficult to verify the claims of either side.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.