The AFP news agency’s French correspondent Arman Soldin was murdered in a rocket attack in Chasiv Yar, which is close to the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Since February 2022, when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he is the 16th journalist to be slain.
The strike took place at around 4:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) on the outskirts of the town near Bakhmut, which for several months served as the focal point of the war in Ukraine. When the AFP team was alongside a group of Ukrainian soldiers, they came under fire from Grad Rockets. The missile that struck close to where Soldin was laying killed him. The team’s remaining members were unharmed.
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Who was Arman Soldin?
Arman Soldin was a 32-year-old journalist and AFP’s Ukraine video coordinator. AFP’s Europe Director Christine Buhagiar remembered Soldin as “enthusiastic, energetic and brave”.
Colleagues claimed that Soldin was particularly skilled at that defines the lives of those caught up in the Ukraine crisis and struggling to survive in the midst of the mayhem.
He witnessed a touching exchange between a conscripted father and his young boy who had fled to another country in Kyiv while they were playing an online strategy game. He even saved a wounded hedgehog from a trench earlier this month and cared for it until it recovered.
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According to AFP, Soldin is a French citizen who was born in Sarajevo, the current capital of Bosnia. Prior to being hired in London, he began working for the firm as an intern in Rome in 2015. The day after Russia’s full-scale invasion began, he arrived in Ukraine to cover the conflict. Soldin had been living in Ukraine since September, leading the team’s coverage and traveling regularly to the front lines.,
In recent months, Soldin, who oversaw the agency’s video reporting in Ukraine, has made frequent trips to the front lines. However, this time, Soldin had been living in Ukraine since September, leading the team’s coverage and traveling regularly to the front lines in the east and south.
“Arman’s death is a terrible reminder of the risks and dangers of covering this war. Our thoughts tonight are with his family and friends, and with all our people on the ground in Ukraine,” said the yoga.
