“While damage assessment is still occurring, it is confirmed as a direct hit,” a Ukrainian military source tells Sky News.
A Ukrainian warplane has for the first time fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia, a Ukrainian military source has told Sky News.
The source said a “Russian command node” was hit on Sunday in the area of Belgorod, western Russia.
Belgorod is close to the border with northeastern Ukraine.
It was not immediately clear what type of munition was used in the attack, including whether or not it had been a Western weapon.
This is the perfect example of reporting before the fog of war has cleared. Whether or not it was a Western weapon would have been useful information if they had just waited for either clarification or to be told there would be no clarification.
Honestly I find that information irrelevant and that section could have been removed entirely. The actual point of the story was that a Ukrainian fighter jet attacked a target inside Russia.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with reporting the facts that you do have when you have them and are confident of your sources.
Acknowledging remaining open questions that you don’t have answers to yet, is a bonus.
A perfect example of reporting before the fog of war clears would be reporting completely erroneous information as factual. So unless you’re suggesting that a Ukrainian fighter jet did NOT in fact strike a target inside Russia, then this isn’t the “perfect example” you’re looking for.
But it’s the 24h news cycle. They have to say something before the other guys!