Kyiv holds a wake for French reporter Arman Soldin
Kyiv hosted a wake for AFP journalist Arman Soldin, who had been killed by a Russian missile attack near Chasiv Yar in Donetsk oblast, Ukrinform reports.
About a hundred colleagues and friends attended the memorial event to pay their respects to the deceased reporter and remember the brightest pages of his life.
"Arman was one of the first journalists who volunteered to come to Ukraine... He gave his life so that millions of people would know what was happening here," said Agence France-Presse director Fabrice Fries.
Soldin's colleagues mentioned that he covered the horrors of the war from Irpin, Bucha, Kherson, and often visited the Bakhmut area.
According to journalist Emmanuel Peuchot, who was with Arman during the shelling, "he was very serious and aware of the risks, but he went to Ukraine because he wanted to show and tell the truth about this war."
The head of the Reporters Without Borders' Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, Jeanne Cavelier, reported that French investigators have already arrived in Ukraine to probe into Arman Soldin's death.
"We are paying a lot of attention to this case, because the murder of a reporter is not only a war crime against a civilian. Reporters perform a social function – to provide the society with true information, and Arman Soldin was a professional at this," Cavelier said.
As IMI reported, Arman Soldin was killed by "Grad" fire near Chasiv Yar (Donetsk oblast), according to his colleagues who witnessed the incident. The attack took place on the outskirts of the town near Bakhmut.
Arman Soldin and his colleagues from the AFP came under fire while they were with a group of Ukrainian soldiers. Soldin, 32, was killed when a rocket struck close to where he was lying. The rest of the team was uninjured.
French prosecutors have opened a war crime investigation into AFP reporter Arman Soldin's death in Ukraine.
Born in Sarajevo, Soldin was a French national who began working for AFP as an intern in its Rome bureau in 2015 and was later hired in London. He was part of the first AFP team to be sent to Ukraine following the start of Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022, arriving on the following day. Soldin had been living in Ukraine since September, leading the team's video coverage and travelling regularly to the front lines in the east and south.
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