(CNN) A French journalist working for the Agence France-Presse was killed by a missile near the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.
Arman Soldin, 32, was the video coordinator for AFP in Ukraine and was killed in a rocket attack on the outskirts of the town of Chasev Yar, near Pakhmut, according to AFP. Advertise on TwitterQuoting colleagues who witnessed the accident.
“We are shocked to learn of the death of AFP video correspondent Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine today,” AFP said. “All of our thoughts go out to his family and loved ones.”
The news agency said Solden was with four colleagues at the time of the attack, but the other journalists were unharmed.
The reporting team was with the Ukrainian soldiers when they came under fire around 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to AFP.
The news agency said Soldin, a French national with Bosnian roots, was an experienced reporter and traveled regularly to the front lines. The AFP video coordinator has been there since September 2022 and has been covered The conflict since the early days of the Russian invasion.
“Our journalists regularly travel to this region to report on clashes in the region, the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine for several months,” the AFP said in a statement.
Soldin is one of several well-known journalists killed since the start of the all-out Russian invasion, including a Fox News cameraman. Pierre Zakrzewski and consultant Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshinova, documentary journalist Brent RenoAnd a photojournalist Max Levine.
Born in Sarajevo, Arman was evacuated to France in 1992 as the Bosnian war broke out, and “stories about refugees affect me,” he told AFP in an interview last year. according To the obituary of the agency.
He joined AFP in 2015 in Rome, and had his first appointment in London later that year, according to the news agency.
Following the news of his death, grief and condolences broke out from his friends and colleagues.
“The entire agency has been devastated by the loss of Arman,” AFP news agency quoted Fabrice Fries, chief executive of AFP, as saying. “His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers journalists face on a daily basis when covering the conflict in Ukraine.”
Earlier this month, Solden retained His camcorder is spinning He and his team of journalists also came under rocket fire near the front line.
“Getting caught in the rain of Grad yesterday with a group of trenchers was probably one of the worst things I’ve experienced since I was in Ukraine, with missiles exploding less than 50 meters away,” he wrote. “Pure horror”.
Colleagues who worked with Soldin in Ukraine called him a “courageous and hardworking journalist” and “full of zest for life” in comments posted on Twitter.
One of the videos posted as a tribute showed him laughing and singing the 1980s pop song Forever Young driving with colleagues in April 2022.
In one of Solden’s last Twitter topics, posted a series of videos about saving a baby hedgehog the team found at the bottom of a crater from Russian bombing at Chasev Yar. Solden returned the hedgehog to its base and hand-fed it.
“Arman was the kind of person who saved injured hedgehogs in war zones. He was a wonderful, vibrant personality and a great journalist. We miss him. We mourn him. Rest in peace,” said Jonathan Brown, deputy news editor at AFP. Moscow and Kiev, on Twitter.
French President Emmanuel Macron mourned Soldin’s death. saying on TwitterWe share the pain of his family and all of his colleagues.
“Courageously, from the first hours of the conflict, he has been at the forefront to establish the facts. To inform us. We share the pain of his loved ones and all of his colleagues.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sergey Kislitsa It’s called Solden A “fantastic journalist” who paid for his bravery with his life.
“My condolences to his loved ones. My respect to all those who take great risks to tell the truth about the horrors of war in Ukraine,” he said.
In their obituary, AFP wrote that Soldin celebrated his 32nd birthday on March 21 from Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.
“A decent bottle was opened for the occasion and a colleague took out his guitar,” France Press quoted his colleague Antoine Lambruschini as saying.
Arman had a delightful little smile on his face.
CNN’s Xiaofei Xu, Duarte Mendonca, and Jo Shelley contributed.