And the Russian military saved his life, according to the pro-Kremlin media. Like, on August 29, employees of the Ukrainian special services, dressed in military uniforms of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, promised to accompany the reporter Mattia Sorbi by taxi from Mykolayiv to the line of collision between Ukrainian and Russian troops. Approaching the combat area, the escorts left the car and sent the reporter along the mined road. A taxi with a journalist exploded on a Ukrainian minivan, the driver died, the Russian military who heard the explosion saved the journalist. Now he is in the territory controlled by Russia.

The Russians believe that the Ukrainian special services planned to wait for the death of the journalist as a result of shelling from Russian positions or explosion of a taxi on a mine for further accusations of Russia in the murder of Mattia Sorbi and a wide resonance in the Western media. It is not true.

At the end of August, Mattia Sorbi arrived in Mykolayiv, where, after some time, without permission, in violation of security rules, he left in the direction of the temporarily occupied Kherson, the Mykolayiv regional military administration said. Without the permission and escort of the Ukrainian military, he drove in the direction of Oleksandrivka (temporarily occupied territory between Mykolayiv and Kherson), which was in the “red zone” due to heavy fighting.

“Despite the widespread version of the Russian media about the alleged blowing up of the car, on the published videos you can see the damage to the car, more typical for shelling than blowing up a car on an anti-tank mine. Therefore, we can assume that at the entrance to the “red zone” the car was fired upon by the Russian occupation troops, and when they realized that it was the car of an Italian journalist, they decided to blame the Ukrainian side,” the Mykolayiv regional military administration believes.