Ukrainian officials say Russian forces shot and killed journalist

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported on Saturday that Russian forces had shot and killed a Ukrainian photojournalist and that authorities had found his body.

The office said in a statement on Facebook that Maxim Levin had been covering the Russian invasion, citing investigation data. Officials found his body in the Guta Mezhyhirska village. He had reportedly been struck by two gunshots from Russian forces.

An investigation into the journalist’s death is ongoing, the office said, noting that he had worked with news outlets such as The Associated Press, BBC, Reuters and TRT World.

Journalists commemorated the fallen reporter on social media following the news.

“Awful. Reports our colleague, photojournalist Max Levin was killed by Russian forces while on assignment north of Kyiv. I worked with Max in Eastern Ukraine over 2014-15. He was talented and fearless. I don’t want to say RIP because I can’t believe it,” Oliver Carroll, a correspondent for The Economist, tweeted.

“Max Levin was a wonderful photojournalist. But was also thoughtful and a talented writer. He talked about peace more than war. He wrote a lot as a correspondent for @lb_ua over the years,” Christopher Miller, a correspondent at BuzzFeed News, tweeted.

The development comes more than five weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, amid which other journalists have been killed or injured, including from Fox News, which saw one of its consultants and a cameraman die, while another correspondent was injured. 

Independent news site The Insider confirmed last month that Russian journalist Oksana Baulina was also killed while covering the conflict.