Sun defence editor Jerome Starkey has pledged to continue covering Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine after being issued with an arrest warrant by Russia.
Starkey suggested he is taking the arrest warrant seriously by referencing Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was imprisoned in Russia for more than a year before being returned to the US in a prisoner exchange last year.
Russia’s Federal Security Service secured the arrest warrant against Starkey because of his “world exclusive” reporting in August last year when he travelled to Kursk inside Russia, accompanied by a photographer and Ukrainian forces. The incursion by Ukraine was described as the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since World War Two.
Russia also placed Starkey on an international wanted list.
Sun editor Victoria Newton said: “The Sun stands in unwavering support of our defence editor, Jerome Starkey, following an arrest warrant by the Russian state.
“Jerome is an award-winning journalist whose courageous frontline reporting from Ukraine has consistently exposed Russian war crimes.
“This action by a sham Russian court is a blatant attempt to silence him and suppress the free press from reporting on the horrific realities of the war.
“Jerome’s commitment to journalistic integrity is unparalleled. He has embedded himself with the Ukrainian military, providing readers with searing eyewitness accounts and powerful, fact-based reports that convey the true horror of the conflict.
“This arrest warrant comes after Jerome became the first UK journalist to report from occupied Russia since William Howard Russel covered the Crimean War in 1856.
“It underscores the vital importance of a free press in holding authoritarian and criminal regimes accountable.”
Jerome Starkey: Russia is ‘trying to intimidate me and other journalists’
Starkey himself said: “It’s nice to feel wanted – but Russia’s courts do have form for jailing people on trumped-up charges, as happened to my colleague Evan Gershkovich.
“This is clearly an attempt to shut down anyone who criticises the Russian invasion of Ukraine – and one that will not work.
“They are trying to intimidate me and other journalists covering this brutal war.
“But it is vital that journalists shine a light on Vladmir Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine. Myself and The Sun will continue to do so.
“Our work to report on the crimes of Putin’s illegal work and the suffering it has heaped on the people of Ukraine will carry on.
“And I would suggest that Vladimir Putin and his regime have bigger things to worry about than the work of British journalists telling the truth about this war.”
The Sun and Starkey have received support from the UK Government. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said it was “just another example of desperate rhetoric from Putin’s government. Of course, we condemn it”.
He added that British journalists “shine a light into some of the darkest corners of the world, uncovering atrocities.
“Jerome Starkey’s award-winning reporting from inside Ukraine, exposing the details of Russia’s illegal war for millions of readers, is no different.
“And if the Kremlin cannot withstand the British newspaper highlighting Ukraine’s brave defence of its freedom, then frankly, Putin should roll back his tanks, withdraw his forces, and end the suffering of Ukrainian and Russian people.
“We will always stand with Ukraine, we will always stand by our free and fearless press.”
Starkey has made a dozen trips, adding up to more than six months in total, to Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
He told Press Gazette one year on from the invasion that he had been “been scared at many points – very notably on day one, and particularly for those first few days. It began to lessen, but that first period of the war was particularly fraught and nerve-wracking for a number of reasons.”
He also praised the “massive team effort” at The Sun: “That’s really important because in a newspaper I often am the one with my name on the story or my picture in the paper, and it’s the same with TV as a correspondent, but I’m massively aware that I’m really lucky I’ve worked with some great teams.”
Starkey first joined The Sun as a trainee in 2003. He left three years later to move to Kabul where he freelanced and worked for The Times.
He then lived in Kenya from 2012, working for The Times as its Africa correspondent, but was arrested at Nairobi Airport and deported from the country four years later. He said it “smacks of intimidation of the press”.
He rejoined The Sun as defence editor in 2020.
In November 2023 he met Volodymyr Zelensky as the Ukrainian president thanked members of the media for their ongoing coverage of the war. Zelensky also gave Starkey an exclusive interview.
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