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The French news agency AFP mourned the death of one of its journalists while carrying out a visual report on the war in Ukraine. Arman Soldin had been here since the start of the Russian invasion and dedicated himself to telling stories about people surviving in the chaos of the conflict. The governments of France and the United States spoke out, while Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the reporter’s death.
French journalist Arman Soldin was killed in a rocket attack while covering heavy fighting in recent days in Bakhmut, in the east of the country.
A team of four people from AFP was accompanying a group of soldiers in their work when they were surprised by Grand rockets, around 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, May 9.
The entire agency team was unharmed, except for 32-year-old Soldin, who took the full blow. His fellow reporters witnessed the entire incident and were in charge of narrating the details.
With this new death, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) already reports that at least 11 journalists and media workers lost their lives while carrying out their work on Ukrainian territory.
Soldin was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and was a French citizen. He started his journalistic career as an intern for AFP in Rome in 2015 and was later hired in London. He arrived in Ukraine a day after it was invaded, among the first agency team to cover the war.
He was described by his peers as a man “dedicated to his craft” and regularly traveled to the front lines of battle in the east and south of the country with his camera, to show the world what happens in a conflict like this.
Ukraine and Russia ruled on what happened
Neither of the two parties involved in the conflict have acknowledged their responsibility. On the one hand, Ukraine expressed its condolences to the family and friends of the video coordinator and blamed Moscow for the attack.
On the other hand, the Kremlin asked to investigate the facts and said that kyiv “was not to be trusted”. “The circumstances of the death of this journalist must be investigated, we can only regret it,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov.
Meanwhile, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, referred to what happened via Twitter and lamented the death of one of his nationals.
Journalist de l’Agence France-Presse, one of our compatriots, Arman Soldin, you were in Ukraine. Avec courage, des les premières heures du conflit il était au front pour établir les faits. Pour nous informer. Nous partageons la douleur de ses proches de él et de tous ses frères de él.
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 9, 2023
In addition, the Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office of that country announced the opening of an investigation for war crimes related to the death of the French journalist.
Through a statement, the prosecution body said that it is possibly three war crimes.
The deliberate attack against the civilian population or against civilians not taking part in the hostilities is condemned by international humanitarian law.
The investigations have been entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity (OCLCH), the note added.
The Prosecutor’s Office added that so far there are seven investigations open for possible war crimes against French citizens, two of them were journalists who died in a similar way to Arman Soldín.
The United States also mourned the death of the journalist. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said from Washington that his government is “devastated” after the news broke and took the opportunity to blame Russia for promoting disinformation about the war in Ukraine.
“Countless journalists are working to expose and report the truth in extremely dangerous contexts… our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”
With AFP and EFE
