ROBOTWAR.io

Who's Who

Alexander Kots

Komsomolskaya Pravda war correspondent; Kotsnews on Telegram

witnessKomsomolskaya Pravda

Profile

Alexander Kots, born in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in 1978, has been a war correspondent since 1999, reporting for Komsomolskaya Pravda from Kosovo, Afghanistan, the North Caucasus, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Venezuela, Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine. His Telegram channel Kotsnews carries some 475,000 subscribers. Britain and Australia sanctioned him in May 2022.

Why they matter

Kots has one of the longest continuous war-reporting records of any of the Russian correspondents now publishing on Telegram, which gives his descriptions of tactics and equipment more technical grounding than most of the commentary channels.

Alexander Kots was born in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in September 1978 and has worked as a war correspondent since 1999, principally for the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. His assignments have included Kosovo, Afghanistan, the North Caucasus, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Venezuela, Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine — an unusually long continuous record among the correspondents now publishing on Telegram.

He holds the Medal “For Courage” (2009) and the medal for participation in the Syrian operation (2016). His channel, Kotsnews , carries roughly 475,000 subscribers.

The United Kingdom and Australia both imposed sanctions on him in May 2022 over his coverage of the invasion, and Ukraine’s Security Service barred him from entry the same year. His Ukraine reporting has drawn accusations of carrying unverified claims, including over the denial of Russian responsibility at Bucha.

That length of experience shows in the material: descriptions of equipment and tactics on Kotsnews tend to be more technically specific than the commentary channels, which is why this site reads it — with the same C grade and the same attribution rules as the rest.

russia osint telegram war-reporting

Sources (1)

Last researched .