French photojournalist Antoni Lallican was killed in a drone attack on Friday in eastern . The Ukrainian military confirmed the news with a post on Facebook by The Fourth Separate Mechanised Brigade.
Lallican was accompanied by a Ukrainian photojournalist who was injured in the attack. The Ukraine army said both were wearing protective equipment and armored vests that signaled they were part of the press.
The incident took place in the .
On his official Instagram page, Lallican’s last post documented the fighting in Donbas and the toll it was taking on the residents who remained in the area.
“To the bombardments has been added the massive deployment of kamikaze drones, now omnipresent,” Lallican wrote.
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) said Lallican’s death marks the first time a journalist has been killed by a drone in the Ukraine conflict. All in all, some have died in Ukraine’s combat zone since .
Macron blames Russia
The EFJ said Lallican was in Ukraine on assignment for France’s Hans Lucas photo agency and that his work was published in various European media outlets.
Hans Lucas said in a tribute post on Instagram that Lallican was an “experienced, committed, and deeply compassionate” journalist who “focused on social and societal issues, with a particular focus on conflict zones and human rights.”
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “deep sadness” over the news of the journalist’s death, placing the blame on Russia.
Lallican was “a victim of a Russian drone attack,” the French president said in a message on X.
The chief of the Ukrainian Union of Journalists, Serhiy Tomilenko, told Ukrainian media that Lallican had been killed near the town of Druzhkivka, one of the most active areas of the 1,250-km (780-mile) front line in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
“By targeting journalists, the Russian army is deliberately hunting those trying to document war crimes,” Tomilenko said in a statement.
“For journalists, every trip to the frontline zone is a deadly risk. Antoni Lallican took this risk again and again, coming to Ukraine, traveling to Donbas, documenting what many prefer not to see,” he added.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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