2023-05-10 03:06:08
Agence France Presse’s video coordinator in Ukraine, Arman Soldin, was killed Tuesday afternoon in a Grad rocket attack in eastern Ukraine, according to AFP journalists accompanying him. The bombing took place around 4:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. GMT) in the vicinity of Chassiv Iar, a Ukrainian town near Bakhmout, which is targeted daily by Russian forces.
Arman Soldin, 32, was with four colleagues who are all unharmed. They were with Ukrainian soldiers when they were taken under the salvo of rockets. His family has been informed. AFP journalists travel regularly to this area to report on clashes in the region, the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine for several months.
An experienced image reporter previously posted in London, Arman Soldin had been the video coordinator in Ukraine since September 2022 and traveled very regularly to the front lines. He was also part of the AFP team that covered the very first days of the Russian invasion. Recruited in Rome in 2015 as an intern before joining the London office the same year, Arman, of French and Bosnian nationality, was born in Sarajevo.
“A real field reporter”
“Arman was enthusiastic, energetic, courageous. He was a real field reporter, always ready to go, even to the most difficult areas,” said AFP Europe director Christine Buhagiar. “He was bursting with energy, that’s how he even defined himself on the networks. With total devotion to his profession as a journalist, ”she said.
“The Agency as a whole has collapsed,” said Fabrice Fries, CEO of AFP. Phil Chetwynd, News Director, hailed the memory of a “brave, creative and tenacious” journalist. “Arman’s brilliant work summed up everything that makes us proud of AFP journalism in Ukraine,” he added.
Emmanuel Macron praised the “courage” of the journalist, who “went to the front to establish the facts”. “The tragic death of Arman Soldin (…) reminds us of the courage of all journalists who undertake to inform us at the risk of their lives”, reacted Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry offered its “sincere condolences”, adding: “He dedicated his life to bringing the truth to the world. »
Arman Soldin is at least the 11th reporter, fixer or journalist driver to have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, according to a count by specialized NGOs RSF and CPJ. On March 15, 2022, the great Franco-Irish reporter Pierre Zakrzewski was killed northwest of kyiv. On May 30, BFMTV journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff lost his life after being hit by shrapnel while filming an evacuation in the Luhansk region.
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