Maksim Levin, a photographer and videographer who was working for a Ukrainian news website and who was a longtime contributor to Reuters, has been killed while covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He leaves behind his wife and four children.
His body was found in a village north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on 1 April, the news website LB.ua, where he worked, said on Saturday.
Levin, born in 1981, was a documentary film-maker who had contributed to Reuters’ coverage of the country since 2013.
He had been working in the village of Huta Mezhyhirska. There had been heavy shelling in that area.
The prosecutor general’s office in Ukraine said Levin was “killed by servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces with two shots from small arms”. This could not be independently verified.
John Pullman, Reuters’ global managing editor for visuals, said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Maksim Levin, a longtime contributor to Reuters, in Ukraine.
“Maks has provided compelling photos and video from Ukraine to Reuters since 2013. His death is a huge loss to the world of journalism. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”
The NGO Reporters Without Borders, which works to protect journalists, said on Twitter that Levin was the sixth journalist killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded late in February.
“He was unarmed and wearing a press jacket,” it said. “Targeting journalists is a war crime.”
On 22 March, it voiced concern after Levin’s disappearance.
The 40-year-old father of four had been working with Ukrainian and international media.
During fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, he managed to escape encirclement in a town where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed.