Fatal attack near Bakhmut: AFP journalist killed in eastern Ukraine

Fatal attack at Bakhmut
AFP journalist killed in eastern Ukraine

A number of journalists and their helpers have died in Ukraine. Now the AFP journalist Arman Soldin dies in a Russian missile attack. The entire workforce of the news agency is “devastated,” explains AFP Managing Director Fabrice Fries.

AFP journalist Arman Soldin has been killed in a rocket attack in eastern Ukraine. According to members of his team, the deadly attack took place in the afternoon on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, near the town of Bakhmut, which had been fought over for months.

The AFP team came under fire while in the area with Ukrainian soldiers. The remaining four members of the team were unharmed. AFP reporters are regularly in the region to cover the fighting.

Soldin was the video coordinator for the news agency in Ukraine. The news agency’s entire workforce was “devastated,” said AFP CEO Fabrice Fries. His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers that journalists take every day when reporting on the war in Ukraine. “Arman’s brilliant work encapsulates everything that makes us proud of AFP journalism in Ukraine,” said Philip Chetwynd of AFP news agency.

Arrived right after the start of the war

Born in Sarajevo, Soldin first started as an intern at the AFP office in Rome in 2015 and later moved to London. He was part of the first AFP reporter team sent to the country a day after Russia’s offensive in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022. Since September he has been living permanently in Ukraine, coordinating the work of the video journalists and regularly traveling to the front in eastern and southern Ukraine himself.

Soldin’s death brings the number of journalists killed in Ukraine, as well as helpers and drivers of media teams, according to journalist organizations, to at least 11.

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