The coordinator of the video service in Ukraine for the AFP, Arman Soldin, was killed on Tuesday in a bombing near Chasev Yar in eastern Ukraine, according to the agency’s journalists who witnessed the incident.
Accident details
- The bombing took place around 4:30 pm local time near the town of Chasiv Yar, not far from Bakhmut, which is being targeted by Russian forces.
- Members of the AFP team were exposed to Grad rocket fire while they were with a group of Ukrainian military personnel.
- Soldin, 32, was killed when a missile landed near where he was sheltering.
- The remaining members of the AFP team were unharmed.
Macron comment
“The entire agency is saddened by the loss of Armand,” said AFP Chairman Fabrice Friese.
“His death is a terrible reminder of the risks journalists face every day while covering the conflict in Ukraine,” he added.
Soldin was born in Sarajevo and holds French citizenship. He began working as an intern at the agency’s Rome office in 2015 before being assigned to London.
Soldin’s departure brings the number of journalists, assistants and drivers killed while covering the war in Ukraine to at least 11, according to Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In the context of the reactions, French President Emmanuel Macron praised Soldin’s “courage”, stressing that he shares “his relatives and comrades’ pain.”
“AFP journalist and one of our compatriots, Arman Soldin, was killed in Ukraine. With courage, and from the first hours of the conflict, he was on the front to document the facts,” Macron said in a tweet.
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2023-05-10 05:13:36
