He was one of the first foreign journalists to enter with his team the ruins of the Mariupol theater. He was also one of the first reporters to film this martyred city, now controlled by Russian forces. Luc Lacroix, the permanent correspondent of France Télévisions in Moscow, covers the war in Ukraine from the side of the pro-Russian separatists.
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Luc Lacroix and his team leave the city of Donetsk every morning to go to Mariupol, a two-hour drive away. To be able to do their reporting, they must be accompanied by pro-Russian separatist soldiers, who are supposed to guarantee their safety. The France Télévisions team therefore does not have total freedom to show what it wishes. Despite this, the correspondent in Moscow believes he can work in decent conditions and interview whoever he wishes.
It is in this context that Luc Lacroix was able to enter the ruins of the Mariupol theater, bombarded on March 16, 2022 by Russian forces, when several hundred civilians had taken refuge there. How many of them died in the underground shelter of the building? The France Télévisions reporter was not allowed to go down into the cellar, but as he passed near a ventilator, he smelled a pestilential odor escaping from it.
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