French journalist dies in evacuation vehicle in Ukraine

French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was killed in Ukraine today. According to Lugansk governor Sergey Gaidai, the journalist was watching the evacuation of people in the area. “Today, our armored evacuation vehicle took ten people from the area and was subjected to enemy bombardment.”

According to Gaidai, Frédéric was wounded in the neck. “The grenade fragments pierced the armor of the car,” said the governor.

Stating that the release was suspended, Gaidai said, “We extend our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the late Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff.” The attack took place near Sievierodonetsk.

Images taken from the scene of the attack show that there is a phrase in English that the vehicle was used for humanitarian purposes.

The death of the journalist occurred on the 96th day of the Russian war in Ukraine. Russian forces have focused their attacks on eastern Ukraine in recent weeks.

On the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, a city in the Lugansk region, Russian forces conducted an offensive action today. At least two civilians died, according to the emergency department. “The Russians entered the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, killed two citizens, injured five,” said Gaidai.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, “the enemy is fixed on the northeast and southeast outskirts of Sievierodonetsk”. “Transferred ammunition and equipment from the territory of the Russian Federation to certain regions to strengthen the troop group,” said today’s report. According to Gaidai, Russia “used all possible weapons, using aircraft”. The Russian Ministry of Defense said today that it attacked “Ukrainian drones” in the region.

The Defense of Ukraine noted that “offensive units are focused on offensive operations to encircle our troops in the Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk regions and to block important logistics routes.” The two cities are neighbors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video speech last night that capturing Sievierodonetsk is a “fundamental” task for the Russians. According to him, the structure of the city was destroyed and “90 percent of the houses were damaged”.

“We are doing everything we can to repel this attack. There hasn’t been a day that we haven’t tried to find more weapons, more modern weapons, to defend our lands, to defend our people,” he said.

Sievierodonetsk, with a pre-war population of 100,000, has been under attack for weeks by Russian troops and pro-Moscow separatists. Dozens of civilians died in the bombings.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysichansk They are located 80 kilometers east of Kramatorsk, which has become the administrative center of Ukraine’s Donbass region since Moscow-backed separatists took control of the eastern part of the region in 2014.

French visit

The journalist’s death occurred on the same day as the visit of French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna to Ukraine. It was in Bucha, near Kyiv today. After Russian soldiers left the city at the end of March and hundreds of Ukrainian civilian bodies were found, Bucha became a symbol of war crimes attributed to Russia by Ukraine.

“This should not happen, should not happen again,” said the head of French diplomacy, after visiting an Orthodox church where photos of the massacres were shown. said.

The minister also spoke of France’s contribution to the investigation of alleged war crimes. Paris, along with Ukrainian investigators, sent agents to the scene to establish a procedure to analyze and identify the bodies. Colonna is the top French official to visit Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.

more attacks

According to the Defense of Ukraine, there were records of attacks in various parts of the country, including Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the east of the country that Zelensky visited yesterday.

In the hometown of Ukrainian President Kryvyi Rih, a counterattack was carried out in connection with the Russian offensive. Ukrainian forces also said they repulsed attacks that destroyed Russian missiles in Odessa in the south of the country.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it crashed into a shipbuilding factory in Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine. The Russians said they destroyed “more than 15 Ukrainian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles” there.

Donation

The winner of the Eurovision contest, Ukrainian music group Kalush Orchestra, sold the event’s trophy at auction and received US$900,000 (approximately R$4.2 million) donated to a foundation supporting the country’s Armed Forces.

The trophy, a large glass microphone with the Eurovision logo, was up for auction on Facebook until Saturday and was acquired by the company Whitebit, which specializes in bitcoin trading. “You’re amazing,” the Facebook group said on Sunday. “A special thank you to the Whitebit team, who bought the trophy for $900,000 and now own it.”

The money collected from the auction, which allows participation with cryptocurrencies, will be donated to the Prytula Foundation, which helps the Ukrainian military, the group reported on Instagram.

Kalush Orchestra won Eurovision on May 14 with the song “Stefania”, which blends hip-hop and traditional Ukrainian music. Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, was excluded from the conflict.

(with AFP)