Dear Friends,

Arman Soldin, a French video reporter working for AFP, was killed in a hail of Russian Grad rockets while reporting near Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, on 9 May. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) pays tribute to the courage he displayed in the course of covering the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, and calls on the Ukrainian and French authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into his death.

Aged 32, Soldin was very committed to his reporting and had been covering the fighting and life at the front line ever since arriving in Ukraine shortly after the start of the war. Because of his Bosnian origin, the fate of the Ukrainians he interviewed resonated with his own personal history.

At least ten journalists, including three French reporters, have been killed since the start of this war, a grim toll for their loved-ones and, more broadly for press freedom. In all cases where RSF has been able to establish the facts, the deadly fire has come from Russian forces.

Your help is essential if we are to continue rendering justice to the men and women who risk their lives every day for the sake of the freedom to report the news.