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.
Journaliste, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff était en Ukraine pour montrer la réalité de la guerre. À bord d’un bus humanitaire, aux côtés de civils contraints de fuir pour échapper aux bombes russes, il a été mortellement touché.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 30, 2022
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.