Antoni Lallican, a 38 -year -old French photographer, died this Friday, October 3, while he was in a car about twenty kilometers from the front line. He was killed by a Russian drone attack.
• The first journalist killed by a drone in Ukraine
Antoni Lallican was this Friday morning in DonBass this Friday morning, about twenty kilometers from the front, when he was target of a Russian drone attack.
“It is the first time that a journalist has been killed by a drone in Ukraine,” said the National Union of Journalists.
During this offensive, the Ukrainian journalist Georguii Ivantchenko was injured. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the Frenchman was part of a group of journalists who accompanied a unit of the 4th Ukrainian armored brigade near the town of Droujkivka. Information confirmed by Emmanuel Macron, who specifies on his social networks that “accompanied the Ukrainian army in the Resistance Front.”
The Ukrainian brigade said a Russian drone was involved. Antoni Lallican “was killed after a directed strike of a FPV drone (first view, editor’s note),” he wrote on Facebook.
• Visible “Press” records
An investigation was opened to clarify the circumstances of this attack. According to the Ukrainian soldiers, Antoni Lallican and Georguii Ivantchenko “carried personal protective equipment” and in their vests “there were signs of recognition, the ‘press'”.
The reporters of the NGO Sans Frontières (RSF) points out that the two journalists distributed “in a car identified to the press when they were reached.” Observations confirmed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriï Sybiha, who specifies that the records were “visual and clear.”
• SNJ denounces a “war crime”
According to the National Union of Journalists, the attack on Antoni Lallican constitutes “a war crime”, asking the authorities to “open an investigation to identify officials.” The Minister of Culture Rachida Dati reacted, emphasizing that this death “reminds us brutally how fragile it is the press.”
“Russia continues to deliberately attack journalists, who constitute an odious crime and a violation of international humanitarian law,” said “Ukrainian minister Andriï Sybiha, who greets” the courage of Antoni. “
• A usual in the Ukrainian field
This mission in Ukraine was not the first of Antoni Lallican since the beginning of the high intensity conflict in February 2022. “Regularly went to Ukraine, I knew the field very well and knew how to work,” Wilfrid Estève, president of the Hans Lucas photography agency, told AFP for what the French collaborated.
Described as “adorable, his heart by hand” for his employer, the news agency explains on Instagram that “from March 2022, he documented kyiv’s siege and since then he has stopped testifying about the reality of war and its consequences in civil populations.” “Like many of his colleagues, he had a Ukrainian press card,” said Hans Lucas.
For its part, the National Union of Journalists points out that “a long -term work had begun together with the inhabitants of the DonBass mining basin.”
“In January, he won the Victor Hugo 2024 award for photography committed for his graduation ‘Suddenly, the sky darkened’, dedicated to war in Ukraine,” said the union.
Saying that being interested in the “social and social issues of conflict zones”, 30 years old, based in Paris, also went to Syria this year, and previously in Lebanon, Haiti, India, Israel and Palestine and even in Hong Kong.
According to the SNJ, 17 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion launched by Russia. On the other hand, journalists without borders lists 14, when UNESCO has 22. Antoni Lallican is the fourth French information murdered in Ukraine, after Pierre Zakrzewski, Frédéric Leclerc -imhoff and Arman Seledin.
Source: BFM TV
