The Agence France-Presse video coordinator was fatally shot on the forehead in Chassiv Iar, in the east of the country.
He is the tenth journalist killed while covering the war in Ukraine, according to the report by the association Reporters Without Borders. Arman Soldin, 32, died on Tuesday May 9 near Bakhmout, in the Donetsk region in the east of the country, announced the AFP agency, for which he had worked since 2015. Born in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a refugee in France from the age of one, this image reporter volunteered to be one of the first AFP special envoys as soon as the country was invaded by Russian troops in February 2022. After having held positions in Rome and then London, Arman Soldin had become the agency’s video coordinator in the country since September 2022 and was used to going to the front. Here’s what we know about his death.
He was hit by a rocket
Arman Soldin was part of a team of five AFP reporters who followed Ukrainian soldiers in combat zones. On Tuesday, they were reporting in the vicinity of Chassiv Iar, a town near Bakhmout, regularly targeted by Russian attacks, as observed by many media, including franceinfo. AFP specifies that its journalists regularly travel to this area to report on clashes in the region, the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine for several months.
Arman Soldin and his colleagues were with Ukrainian soldiers when they were caught in a salvo of rockets around 4:30 p.m. (local time). Arman Soldin was fatally hit by a Grad rocket fire (the name of a type of Soviet rocket launcher), while he was lying on the ground trying to protect himself, his colleagues reported. They escaped unscathed.
“The agency as a whole has collapsed”said Fabrice Fries, CEO of AFP. “His death is a stark reminder of the risks and dangers faced by everyday journalists covering the conflict in Ukraine.”
The investigation promises to be difficult
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation in France on Wednesday for “war crimes” to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the reporter’s death. She was entrusted to the gendarmes of the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes.
It is not known at this stage if this bombardment particularly targeted the team of journalists, and who ordered it. In a press release (in English)the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an organization based in the United States, said “not being able to confirm the source of the rocket fire”. He calls Russian and Ukrainian authorities to investigate the circumstances of the young man’s death.
It will be necessary “establish the circumstances and responsibilities” of the death of Arman Soldin in Ukraine, added Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), interviewed on franceinfo. This investigation will be difficult, he acknowledges, as “the Ukrainian investigation services are absolutely overwhelmed”. But RSF “trying to bring his stone to the building” in these similar circumstances, “and there are investigations that can be done with international assistance”.
The head of the NGO also highlights the risks faced by journalists who, like Arman Soldin, film “and who are forced to go close to the front, to face a form of danger that sometimes inflicts death”. For RSF, “It does not justify the deliberate shootings they are too often subjected to, nor the firing of rockets or other weapons against civilians, including journalists”.
The whole world reacted to his death
“With courage, from the first hours of the conflict he was at the front to establish the facts. To inform us”greeted Emmanuel Macron on Twitter. Beyond the President of the Republic, the death of Arman Soldin has aroused many reactions in France and abroad, among journalists and within the political class. Stade Rennes, whose colors he had worn from 2006 to 2008 in youth teams, also expressed “his great sadness” on the social network.
Several international political leaders reacted. Arman Soldin “devoted his life to giving an account of the truth to the world”wrote the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Twitterpresenting its “sincere condolences to his family and colleagues”. “The world owes Arman Soldin”also declared the spokesperson for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, while the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “devastated” by his death.
Arman Soldin is at least the tenth journalist to have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, according to an RSF count. According to the NGO, three French journalists died in this conflict, after Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff in May 2022 and Pierre Zakrzewski in March 2022. CPJ lists at least 15 information professionals killed in Ukraine.