(Reuters) - Ukrainian shelling killed a Russian journalist covering the 27-month-old war in a village in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Russian news agencies quoted the town's mayor as saying.

Valery Kozhin, who worked for Russia's NTV television channel, was one of a group of journalists hit in the strike, said Ivan Prikhodko, mayor of Horlivka, north of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

NTV had earlier reported that three of their staff, including Kozhin, had been wounded in the village of Holmivskyi, just outside Horlivka, and taken to hospital.

According to unofficial compilations, at least 16 journalists have died since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

(Reporting by Reuters)