By KYIV. May 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Video journalist Arman Soldin died in eastern Ukraine, near Chasiv Yar (Donetsk region) as a result of a missile strike, AFP news agency reported.
“The whole agency is devastated by the loss of Arman. His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers faced by journalists every day covering the conflict in Ukraine,” AFP chairman Fabrice Fries said.
Reportedly, the agency’s journalists, along with a group of Ukrainian soldiers, came under fire from the Grad multiple launch rocket system on the outskirts of the town of Chasiv Yar, in the vicinity of Bakhmut. Soldin died as a result of a close missile hit to the place where he was.
A 32-year-old French citizen originally from Sarajevo, Soldin, along with other journalists from the agency, arrived in Ukraine the day after the start of Russian aggression and since then regularly traveled to the front line, to the east and south of the country.
According to the human rights groups Reporters Without Borders and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, Soldin became the 11th media person to die while covering the war in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences to the journalist’s relatives. “Agence France-Presse journalist, one of our compatriots Arman Soldin, was killed in Ukraine. With courage, from the first hours of the conflict, he was at the front to establish the facts. To inform us. We share the pain of his loved ones and all his colleagues,” he said.
