The head of the Lugansk Regional Military Administration, in eastern Ukraine, Serhiy Gaidai, reported on Monday that a French journalist who was covering the details of the conflict died as a result of an attack by the invading Russian troops in the city of Severodonetsk, in the east of the country. The news was later confirmed by the President of France.
The professional, identified as Frederick Leclerc-Imhoff, worked for the French network BFMTV and was inside a vehicle that “was about to evacuate a dozen people in an area that has come under enemy fire,” Gaidai explained in a statement released through his Telegram account.
The authority, which published a press accreditation with the reporter’s photograph, he noted that Leclerc-Imhoff would have suffered a fatal neck injury after several projectiles and shrapnel hit the vehicle in question. “Our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Frederick Leclerc-Imhoff,” he said.
“Double crime”
The news was confirmed shortly after by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who maintained that the reporter was “mortally wounded” while accompanying civilians fleeing the “Russian bombs.” “Journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to show the reality of the war. On board a humanitarian bus, along with civilians who were forced to flee to escape Russian bombs, he was fatally wounded,” Macron tweeted.