The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ-IFJ) condemn as a war crime the death of French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, killed by a drone strike in Ukraine on Friday 3 October. They are calling on the authorities to open an investigation to identify those responsible.
It is the first time that a journalist has been killed by a drone in Ukraine, according to the EFJ. Antoni Lallican is believed to have been killed in a targeted strike using an FPV (first-person view) drone, which allows its operator to see the target before striking, according to the Ukrainian Ground Forces.
Antoni Lallican and the Ukrainian journalist Heorgiy Ivanchenko, who was injured in the attack, were both wearing their bulletproof vests marked ‘press’. The photojournalist was reporting for the Hans Lucas agency.
Based in Paris, Antoni Lallican was the 2024 winner of the Victor Hugo Prize for Committed Photography for his reportage ‘Suddenly the sky darkened’, about the war in Ukraine. He has been published in numerous media, including Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération, Médiapart, Der Spiegel, Zeit, Die Welt, Le Temps and Der Standard. Seventeen journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022. (FS)