A French photojournalist was killed by a drone in eastern Ukraine on Friday, the Ukrainian military and international press associations said, saying that it was the first time in the war that a working journalist had been killed by a remotely piloted drone.
Antoni Lallican, a Paris-based photographer who won the 2024 Victor Hugo Prize for Committed Photography for his coverage of the war, was working alongside a Ukrainian photojournalist, Georgiy Ivanchenko, when he was killed.
Mr. Ivanchenko was seriously injured in the attack, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers said in a statement.
President Emmanuel Macron of France issued a statement extending his condolences to Mr. Lallican’s family, saying the journalist had been “accompanying the Ukrainian Army on the resistance front” and was “a victim of a Russian drone attack.”
The exact circumstances surrounding the attack remain under investigation, but both reporters were wearing protective gear and body armor clearly identifying themselves as “Press,” the European and International Federations of Journalists said in a statement.
Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, said the two men were working near Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region, where some of the most ferocious battles of the war are being waged.
“Today, in Ukraine, the main threat to journalists, as to all civilians, is Russian drones hunting people,” Mr. Tomilenko said in a statement. “By targeting journalists, the Russian Army is deliberately hunting those trying to document war crimes.”
“Every trip to the frontline zone is a deadly risk,” he said. “Antoni Lallican took this risk again and again, coming to Ukraine, traveling to Donbas, documenting what many prefer not to see.”
One of the Ukrainian brigades working the area, the Ukrainian 4th Separate Heavy Mechanized Brigade, said Mr. Lallican had been killed in a “targeted strike by an enemy FPV drone,” referring to so-called first-person view drones, which are piloted remotely.
“The enemy once again cynically violated the norms of international humanitarian law,” the brigade said in a statement.
The Russian military did not issue any immediate public statement.
The widespread targeting of civilians by the Russian military has been extensively documented by Ukrainian and international journalists, war crimes investigators and human rights organizations.
As the use of armed FPV drones has proliferated across the battlefield, a growing body of video evidence has emerged showing Russian drone pilots specifically targeting civilians.
An FPV drone is usually outfitted with an onboard camera that streams a live video feed to an operator — often giving the pilot a clear look at the intended target. The drone may be configured to drop munitions or to crash into the target, detonating an explosive.
In June, Human Rights Watch documented at least 45 drone strikes by Russian forces in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine that appeared to deliberately target civilians or civilian objects including infrastructure.
Mr. Lallican is the third French journalist killed by Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to the Ukrainian journalists’ union.
As of Sept. 5, 2025, at least 18 people working for media organizations had been killed while performing their professional duties, according to the latest accounting by the union. Another 10 media workers killed in strikes have been registered as civilian victims.
Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting.
Marc Santora has been reporting from Ukraine since the beginning of the war with Russia. He was previously based in London as an international news editor focused on breaking news events and earlier the bureau chief for East and Central Europe, based in Warsaw. He has also reported extensively from Iraq and Africa.
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