Moscow “cannot” investigate and advises to “contact the Ukrainian side” about the death of the AFP journalist, killed by a strike on May 9, 2023 while he was reporting for the Ukrainian army.
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“Russia cannot conduct an investigation here.” A year after the death of French journalist Arman Soldin, killed near the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, then besieged by the Russian army, the Kremlin spokesperson declared on Wednesday May 8 that Moscow was not in a position to conduct an investigation into the circumstances of his death. “If I understand correctly, at the time of his death he was in the territory under the control of the kyiv regime”justified Dmitri Peskov, assuring that he “East probably necessary to address the Ukrainian side.”
The 32-year-old journalist, who worked for AFP as a video coordinator, was killed on May 9, 2023 during a rocket attack, while he was reporting with Ukrainian soldiers in Chassiv Yar, near the front, in the Donetsk region, in the east of the country.
Around fifteen journalists killed in Ukraine
In France, the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation for war crimes in May 2023, in order to determine the circumstances of the death of Arman Soldin and the origin of the shots.
Around fifteen journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian army’s offensive in February 2022, according to specialized NGOs.
Russia, for its part, has repeatedly accused Ukraine of targeting Russian journalists, some of whom died. But she never acknowledges her responsibility for the deaths of reporters attributed to strikes by her army.
