Antoni Lallican, an award-winning French photographer on assignment in Ukraine, died in a drone attack in the eastern Donbas region on Friday, press groups have announced. It is the first time a journalist has been killed by a drone in Ukraine in more than three years of war with Russia.
Lallican, 37, was embedded with a Ukrainian brigade near the front line in Donbas when he was killed in a drone attack on the area, the Ukrainian military said. They attributed the strike to Russia.
A Ukrainian photographer, Georgiy Ivanchenko, was wounded in the same attack. His condition is reported to be stable.
Both were wearing protective equipment marked "Press", according to the International and European Federations of Journalists, which denounced their deaths as a "war crime".
Antoine Chuzeville of the French journalists' union SNJ called for international measures to protect reporters working in Ukraine.
"This is becoming extremely serious for freedom of information," he told RFI. "It is absolutely urgent that measures be taken at the level of international law."
France calls for protection for journalists covering Ukraine conflict
Lallican is the 14th journalist to die while covering the war in Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders said, though some estimates put the number as high as 22.
Three others were also French nationals: Arman Soldin, a video journalist for news agency AFP; Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, a reporter for news channel BFMTV; and Pierre Zakrzewski, a cameraman for Fox News.
Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, accused the Russian army of "deliberately hunting those trying to document war crimes".
Seasoned reporter
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his "profound sadness" at Lallican's death in a post on X.
Based in Paris, Lallican reported from countries including Sudan, Haiti, Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
He travelled to Ukraine regularly and knew the terrain well, according to the Hans Lucas photography agency, for which he was working at the time of his death.
His work appeared in several French and international publications. In 2024, he was awarded the Victor Hugo Prize for Committed Photography for a series on the war in Ukraine titled "Suddenly, the sky darkened".
