Frederic Leclerc – Imhoff, a French journalist, was killed by a Russian bombing while filming an evacuation in Ukraine on Monday May 30th. Emmanuel Macron announced.
The head of state tweeted that the image reporter was “onboard a humanitarian bus, along with civilians forced to flee Russian bombs”, and that he had been “mortally struck”.
Reporters Without Borders (NGO) had earlier announced the death of a French journalist “on the road between Lyssytchansk et Bakhmout in the oblast Lugansk”, near Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. This death was confirmed by Serguii Gadai, the governor for the Lugansk area, in a press statement.
“BFMTV has the immense grief of announcing Frederic Leclerc–Imhoff’s disappearance,” said a 32-year old image reporter. He was employed on the antenna. The channel’s morning news broadcast was announced on Twitter as “BFMTV, the pain it is immense”. “Frederic was a courageous and discrete image reporter. We are mourning the loss of a colleague, friend and coworker.
The videographer, who has been with BFMTV for six years, was on his second trip to Ukraine. The channel reported that Maxime Brandstaetter, a journalist who was accompanying the JRI, was “slightly hurt”. According to Patrick Sauce, a senior journalist for the news channel, Oksana Luteta, the Ukrainian fixer-translator, is “doing well”.
Russian forces attempt to seize control of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine on the 96th day in fighting in Ukraine. The city, home to around 100,000 people, was under siege for several weeks. According to the governor of this region, street fights are ongoing there.
According to RSF, eight journalists died on the job since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
The overall number of civilian casualties of the conflict is not known. The Ukrainian authorities reported 20,000 deaths in the battle for Mariupol, a city in the south-east that was besieged for three consecutive months. Western sources mention 12,000 Russian soldiers being killed. A French military source confirmed that the figure was closer to 15,000. In mid-April, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, stated that between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed. There are approximately 10,000 people who were injured and a total of 2,500 killed, but there is no reliable statistics.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) claim that more than 8,000,000 Ukrainians have been internally displaced, while 6.7 million have fled to other countries.
