Dhe organization Reporters Without Borders has investigated the circumstances of the death of Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin and comes to the conclusion that he and his companion were killed by Russian soldiers on March 13 in a forest near the village of Guta Mezhyhirska, thirty kilometers north of Kyiv , were executed “in cold blood”, probably having been interrogated and tortured beforehand. The bodies of the two men were found by police on April 1 after the Russian army withdrew from the area.
A team from Reporters Without Borders investigated the crime between May 24 and June 3, collecting evidence at the scene, interviewing witnesses and making the results of the investigation available to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. According to the Reporters Without Borders reconstruction, on March 13 Maks Levin was traveling with his friend, Ukrainian soldier Oleksiy Chernyshov, in an area fought between the Russian and Ukrainian armies, where he had lost a comrade drone he was using three days earlier . He suspected important recordings on this and absolutely wanted to salvage them. Reporters Without Borders notes that Levin sometimes made such footage available to Ukrainian fighters, but his focus was on the journalistic documentation of the war and the destruction inflicted.
Two bullets close-up
While searching for the drone, Levin and Chernyshov were ambushed by Russian soldiers who were holed up in a ditch just meters away. The car of the two was hit by fourteen bullets. Levin hit three bullets, two of which were put to the head at point-blank range while he was already on the ground. His friend Chernysov was also shot in the head and his body was set on fire, as was their car. The posture in which Chernysov’s body was found indicates that he was doused with petrol and set alight while still alive. Reporters Without Borders suspects the perpetrators to be in the ranks of the 106th Airborne Division of the Russian army, which was stationed in the area in question, or in special forces. This is indicated by the cartridges found at the crime scene.
Photographed by Maks Levin: Irpin, March 9, 2022. Civilians flee towards Kyiv with few belongings.
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Image: Maks Levin 2022 / Center for Persecuted Arts
Maks Levin and his friend paid for their “fight for reliable information in this war with their lives,” said Reporters Without Borders director-general Christoph Deloire. “We owe them the truth. And we will fight to identify and find those who executed them.” Maks Levin’s murder is a crime against freedom of expression, said French journalist Patrick Chauvel, who previously worked with Levin and was involved in the reporter’s investigation participated without limits.
Forty-year-old Maks Levin had documented the Russian annihilating attack on his country from the start in 2014. His pictures from Bucha, Borodjanka or Irpin, which show the suffering of the civilians and the extent of the Russian violence, have been printed in numerous international media. An exhibition of his pictures can be seen at the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen until June 26th.