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France is calling for an investigation into the death of a French journalist who died while reporting on war-torn Ukraine.
“France demands that an investigation be carried out as soon as possible and with transparency into the circumstances of this drama,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said in a statement.
French news channel BFM TV reported that 32-year-old French journalist Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was assassinated on Monday, May 30, 2022 in Ukraine, being fatally hit by a shrapnel while covering an evacuation operation. ‘Ukraine. (BFM TV via AP)
Colonna, who was in Ukraine on Monday, said he had spoken with Governor Luhansky and called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate.
BFM TV reporter Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, was fatally hit by shrapnel while covering an evacuation operation in Ukraine, according to the French news channel for which he worked.
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BFM TV said Leclerc-Imhoff was killed while “covering a humanitarian operation in an armored vehicle” near Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the Donbas region that is being hard-fought by Russian and Ukrainian forces. He had worked for six years on the French television network.
The governor of the Luhansk region of Ukraine, Serhiy Haidai, said the evacuation effort was suspended after the strike.
According to Zelenskyy, Leclerc-Imhoff was the 32nd media assassinated since the beginning of the invasion of Russia on February 24.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy offered his “sincere apologies to Frédéric’s colleagues and family.”
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to “show the reality of the war.”
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“I share the grief of the family, relatives and comrades of Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, to whom I send my condolences,” Macron said. “To those who carry out this difficult mission of reporting to theaters of operations, I would like to reiterate the unconditional support of France.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.