It is around 2 p.m., Monday, May 30, when an armored bus leaves Kramatorsk, escorted by police cars. The objective is clear: to pick up ten civilians, elderly people, stranded in Lysichansk, 80 kilometers away, in the heart of the Donbass war.
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Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, journalist from BFMTV, is reporting: he is filming a few images in front of the vehicle when a shell explodes in front of the convoy.
“It was a large caliber 152 mm shell, the shrapnel of which pierced the armored windscreenspecifies to franceinfo Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, occupied almost entirely by the Russians, who announced the death of our colleague on Monday afternoon. The journalists were wearing helmets and bulletproof vests but the shrapnel hit his neck. He couldn’t get out of it. It’s the first time it’s happened. Journalists have already accompanied our police patrols.”
He was killed by “a Russian bombardment”, specifies the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, who condemns a “double crime targeting a humanitarian convoy and a journalist”. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia at the end of February, at least eight journalists have died on the ground in the exercise of their profession, according to a count by RSF (Reporters Without Borders). This is the second French journalist to die in Ukraine, more than two months after the disappearance of FRanco-Irish Pierre Zakrzewski.
The governor reports a worsening of the situation in this war zone, pounded by the Russians for a few days. Witnesses speak of permanent, indiscriminate bombardments, particularly on the main road to Lysychansk eyou Sieverodonetsk, but also parallel routes. The war in the Donbass is an “old-fashioned” artillery war, where the objective is to push back the enemy with force and fire. Direct consequence: the main victims are the military, of course, but also civilians, aid workers and journalists.
“It is very painful for me. You know, when we have won against the hordes of Putin, I would like to go to the parents of this journalist and thank them: their son heroically told what is happening in Ukraine. It is a risky but very important job to show the reality and counter the Russian propaganda.”
Russian media which also seized on the affair: on Monday, one of the officers of the separatist allies of the Kremlin told the Tass agency that Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was not a journalist, but a foreign mercenary and that allegedly delivered weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainian army.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office announced Monday evening the opening of an investigation entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes. This survey also covers “the injuries suffered by his colleague Maxime Brandstaetter”present with him during the report, said the prosecution. The body of Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was evacuated to the city of Dnipro, in central Ukraine. This is the second time that Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff has traveled to Ukraine to cover the war. He had been there since May 16, “at his request“, specifies Marc Olivier Fogiel, the director of BFM TV. He was 32 years old and died doing his job as a journalist.