A French photojournalist covering evacuation efforts in eastern Ukraine has been killed in a Russian strike, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, who was carrying press cards, was fatally injured in the neck when shrapnel pierced the armored evacuation truck he was in, Serhiy Haidai, governor of the region of Luhansk, on Telegram, calling for evacuations to be canceled after the attack. . The truck was about to pick up 10 civilians, he said.
Haidai shared graphic images of the disturbing scene, showing the bloodied truck, which was marked “HUMANITARIAN AID” inches from where the projectile appeared to pierce the thick glass.
Macron, confirming the death of Leclerc-Imhoff on Monday, tweeted his condolences to his family and his support for war correspondents. Before this attack, seven journalists had died while covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
BFMTV, the French news channel for which Leclerc-Imhoff reported, said in a statement that another colleague traveling with him, Maxime Brandstaetter, was “slightly injured”.
Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, had worked for the chain for six years. It was his second mission to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, said BFMTV.
Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, condemned the murder near Severodonetsk, saying it was the latest in a “growing list of Russian crimes against media workers in Ukraine”.
The strike came on the same day that French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna visited Ukraine. She called the journalist’s death “deeply shocking” and said she had called for an investigation into the attack on a humanitarian convoy and a journalist.
