PARIS: A French journalist has been killed while working in Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron said Monday on Twitter, the latest of several reporters killed or wounded during Russia’s invasion of the country.
“Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to show the reality of war. On board a humanitarian bus with civilians forced to flee to escape Russian bombings, he was mortally wounded,” Macron wrote.
Leclerc-Imhoff was working for the BFM television news channel, which said he was 32 years old and on his second Ukraine reporting trip since the war began on February 24.
He was near Severodonetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine that has been pounded by advancing Russian troops in recent weeks, the French and Ukrainian foreign ministries said in separate statements.
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who visited Kyiv on Monday, said in the statement that “France demands the opening of a transparent inquiry as soon as possible to shed all the light on the circumstances of this tragedy.”
“I share the grief of his family, relatives and colleagues,” Macron wrote, adding that “to those who ensure the difficult mission of reporting in combat zones, I want to reiterate France’s unconditional support.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international media advocacy group, says over a dozen journalists had been killed while reporting on the Ukraine conflict.
French journalist killed in Ukraine: Macron
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French journalist killed in Ukraine: Macron
- Emmanuel Macron: ‘Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was on board a humanitarian bus, with civilians forced to flee, when he was mortally wounded’
- Leclerc-Imhoff’s employer French TV channel BFM-TV also confirmed that he had been killed
Hezbollah says Israeli strike killed Al-Manar TV presenter in southern Lebanon
- The Israeli military said later on Monday that Al-Din was a Hezbollah militant who recently worked to rehabilitate the group’s artillery capabilities in southern Lebanon
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Monday that an Israeli strike in the country’s south killed TV presenter Ali Nour Al-Din, who worked for the group’s affiliated Al-Manar television station.
The group said the killing portends “the danger of Israel’s extended escalations (in Lebanon) to include the media community.”
The Israeli military said later on Monday that Al-Din was a Hezbollah militant who recently worked to rehabilitate the group’s artillery capabilities in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which culminated in Israeli strikes that severely weakened the Iran-backed militant group. Since then, the sides have traded accusations over ceasefire violations.
Lebanon has faced growing pressure from the US and Israel to disarm Hezbollah. The group’s leaders fear that Israel could dramatically escalate strikes across the battered country, aiming to push the Lebanese government for quicker action to confiscate Hezbollah’s arsenal.
