Background
Serhiy Nikolayev"s only daughter is Valeriya Kravchuk, who was born in 1995.
Serhiy Nikolayev"s only daughter is Valeriya Kravchuk, who was born in 1995.
He graduated from Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture in 1993 and was a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.
He was killed when caught in shelling crossfire at Pesky, East Ukraine. Serhiy lived in Kyiv, Ukraine. Serhiy was a photojournalist for Segodnya since April 2008.
Georgia, Libya, Somalia, and Syria were other sites Serhiy covered during his career.
He focused on war and its impact on children. In 2013, he held an exhibition called "A Childhood not for Children."
Nikolayev was killed in crossfire while covering fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists in the village of Peski on the outskirts of Donetsk on 28 February 2015.
Pesky is located just 1.5 kilometers away from Donetsk airport. The injury was caused from a fragment of a shell.
Serhiy arrived alive at Krasnoarmiysk hospital in Donetsk, but his injuries were fatal and he passed away.
He was wearing a bulletproof vest marked as "Press" at the scene. Nikolay (or Mykola) Flerko, a volunteer in Right Sector battalion was also declared dead from the shell. The police in Krasnoarmeysk are investigating the incident as a deliberate homicide.
The conflict was between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian military.
lieutenant arose after former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych"s departure in March 2014. Russian President, Vladimir Putin, gave the order to invade Ukraine to "protect ethnic Russians living there" and to secure Ukraine"s Crimean Peninsula.
Russia continues to supply separatists, resulting in an armed conflict with the Ukrainian Government. A ceasefire was issued on 15 February 2015.
Russian-supported separatists violated the ceasefire, where both sides were to stop the shelling and pull back their heavy weapons, but continued the shelling attacks on February 28th.
2015.
Both sides (pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops) were blamed for the death. Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine, submitted a bill to parliament for the United Nations peacekeepers to monitor the ceasefire. Both government troops and separatists agreed to the continuation of withdrawing heavy weapons.
Irina Bokova, director-general of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said, "I condemn the killing of Sergii Nikolaiev.
I call on all in Ukraine to ensure the safety of media workers."
Reporters Without Borders issued the following statement, "We offer our condolences to the family and colleagues of this talented photographer, who was the seventh media professional to be killed while covering the conflict in eastern Ukraine"
The Russian Union of Journalists" release said, "..shocked by this new tragedy, the murder of Ukrainian photographer Sergii Nikolaiev. We believe that we can work together in an investigation on all the killings of journalists and media workers in the region.
The perpetrators and masterminds behind these attacks should be brought to justice."
Olga Guk, editor-in-chief of Segodnya, said, "He would go with his camera into the fire so that he could show life as it happened. He did not spare himself.
He was the bravest of professionals."
President Petro Poroshenko appointed a scholarship for Serhiy"s daughter Valeriya Kravchuk.
Nikolayev was previously attacked by members of the Berkut special police forces when reporting on a "Euromaidan" event in Kiev on 1 December 2013.
