Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a journalist’s defense organization, published this Wednesday, June 22 an investigation in Ukraine that, according to it proves that Maks Levin, a Ukrainian photoreporter, was murdered and possibly tortured by Russian soldiers. March.
RSF informed AFP that this “report” will lead to the International Criminal Court’s sixth complaint. The complaint will be “exclusively about Maks Levin”, the association said. This case was mentioned “among many other cases in our fifth complain on May 27”.
On April 1, the bodies of Maks Levin, a Ukrainian journalist, and Oleksiy Chernyshov (a soldier), were discovered in a forest near Moschchun. The village is about 20 kilometers from Kiev. Both men vanished on March 13.
RSF sent a team to the scene from May 24 to June 3. This included Patrick Chauvel, a war photographer who had previously worked in Donbass with Maks Levin at the beginning of February.
Investigators reported that they had found evidence that “investigations have revealed evidence that the photojournalist was coldly executed” after likely being tortured and interrogated by Russian forces on their disappearance.
They are reliant on photos of crime scene and material elements found on spot: bullets according them commonly used the Russian army and evidence that the Russian presence was on scene (“packages with food, covered in plastic, instructions for using rockets
Two assumptions are made in the report about the events. The first scenario suggests that Maks Levin and his attendant were shot after they were unknowingly spotted in the Russian army.
The second scenario would have seen the men being intercepted by Russian soldiers in their car, interrogated, or even tortured (possibly burned alive for Oleksiy Cheneyshov), and then shot.
RSF claims it was heard by Ukrainian justice and “gave nine material evidence collected on ground, as well as a USB Key containing several dozen photographs taken by Patrick Chauvel at crime scene”.
Maks Levin was one of eight journalists who were killed in the conflict in Ukraine. Frederic Leclerc – Imhoff, a Frenchman who was killed in shrapnel fire by Russian forces on May 30, is the latest victim.
