A 32-year-old French journalist died in eastern Ukraine on Monday after being hit by mortars while covering an evacuation operation in Ukraine, according to the French news station he worked for.
BFM TV said its journalist Frederick Leclerc-Imhoff was killed while “covering a humanitarian operation in an armored vehicle” near Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the Donbas region that fiercely resists Russian and Ukrainian forces. He worked for a French television channel for six years.
French President Emmanuel Macron took to Twitter to pay tribute to Leclerc-Imhoff, saying he was “in Ukraine to show the reality of war”.
“He was shot dead on a humanitarian bus alongside civilians who were forced to flee to escape Russian bombs,” Macron wrote on Twitter. Macron expressed his condolences to his family, relatives and colleagues and spoke of France’s “unconditional support” for “those who carry out the difficult task of informing theaters of operations”.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called the journalist’s death “deeply shocking”. “France calls for a transparent investigation as soon as possible to clarify the circumstances of this tragedy,” she added.
On Monday, the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, announced the death of Leclerc-Imhof in a telegram message, saying Russian forces had opened fire on an armored vehicle traveling to evacuate people.
“From the projectile, Bushknar hit the armor of the car, an accredited French journalist in the neck, which cut a accredited French journalist in the neck. “The patrolman was rescued by a helmet,” he wrote. Haidai said the evacuation was halted as a result of the attack.
He published a photo of Leclerc-Imhoff’s accreditation in the Ukrainian press and told the outcome of the attack.
Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said another French journalist was wounded along with a Ukrainian woman.
He said Leclerc-Imhoff’s body was evacuated to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Bakhmut, from where it would be transferred to the central city of Dnipro for burial.
He said the policeman accompanying the car was hit on the head by rubble and taken to a military hospital.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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