AFP journalist killed in Ukraine

French international news agency Agence France-Presse says its Ukraine video coordinator was killed Tuesday during a rocket attack near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

In a tweet, AFP said other agency journalists were with Arman Soldin at the time of the Grad rocket bombardment.

French media outlets reported that the late afternoon attack took place in the vicinity of Chasiv Yar, a town near Bakhmut. Russian forces have been trying to capture the city for nine months, making Bakhmut the focus of the war’s longest battle.

Soldin was 32 years old and born in Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia, according to the French media reports.

AFP said it was “devastated” at Soldin’s death and “all of our thoughts go out to his family and loved ones.”

In May 2022, French journalist Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, who was working in Ukraine for BFM-TV, was killed near Severodonetsk in the east.