Paris Launches Probe after French Reporter Killed by Russian Drone in Donbas
French prosecutors have opened a war crimes investigation into the death of photojournalist Anthony Lallican, who was killed in eastern Ukraine by a Russian drone strike.
The Gaze reports this, referring to Le Figaro.
The case has been assigned to France’s Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes.
In a statement, the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the probe concerns the “intentional harm to the life or physical and psychological integrity of a person protected under international humanitarian law.”
The classification as a war crime also covers “deliberate attacks on civilians or on persons not directly taking part in hostilities.”
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the killing, describing Lallican as “a victim of a Russian drone attack” and vowing that France would pursue justice.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the journalist was deliberately targeted despite wearing a vest clearly marked PRESS.
“Russia continues to intentionally hunt journalists. We will do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to account,” Sybiha said.
Lallican was killed on October 3 near Druzhkivka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, after a Russian FPV drone struck the area where he was working.
Ukrainian photographer Hryhorii Ivanchenko of The Kyiv Independent, who was nearby, was injured but remains in stable condition.
Lallikan was accredited by the Hans Lucas photo agency, which collaborates with leading French and international media outlets including Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération, Mediapart, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, Die Welt, Zeit, NZZ, Stern, and Focus Magazin.
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Lallikan began working on long-term documentary projects capturing the daily struggles of residents in Donetsk, the country’s industrial city turned frontline.
In 2024, he received the Victor Hugo Prize for Socially Engaged Photography for a series on Ukrainians, and was shortlisted for the Lucas Dolega Award.
According to Serhii Tomilenko, head of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Lallican is the third French journalist to die covering the war in Ukraine.
Several foreign reporters, including journalists from Poland and the United States, have been wounded in previous Russian attacks.
As The Gaze reported earlier, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution calling on Russia to immediately release 26 Ukrainian journalists from captivity and to increase international pressure on those guilty of crimes against the media.