Emmanuel Macron has led the tributes to a French journalist killed while reporting on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.
Arman Soldin, who worked for AFP news agency, died on Tuesday after being hit by rocket fire west of Bakhmut.
The 32-year-old was part of a team of journalists who came under fire at roughly 4.30pm local time.
The French president paid tribute to Soldin’s work on the frontlines of the war.
“We share the pain of his loved ones and his colleagues,” he wrote in a tweet.
"His death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers faced by journalists every day covering the conflict in Ukraine," said AFP chairman Fabrice Fries.
Soldin was born in Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia, and a French citizen, according to AFP. He arrived in Ukraine to cover the war the day after the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, and had traveled regularly to the front lines in recent months.
AFP said it was “devastated" at Soldin's death and that “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.
At least 10 media workers have been killed while covering the war in Ukraine, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
RSF Director Christophe Deloire praised the daily courage of those covering the war and called Soldin's death “a tragedy of all those who defend the independence and reliability of information."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a speech Tuesday night in Washington, expressed condolences to Soldin's family and loved ones.
“Countless journalists are working to expose and report on the truth in extremely dangerous settings," Blinken said. “Today, we were devastated to learn of the death of AFP video journalist Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine.”
