AFP reporters who witnessed the incident said AFP Ukraine video coordinator Arman Soldin died on Tuesday in a rocket fire near Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. The AFP team was attacked by Grad rockets while they were with a group of Ukrainian soldiers. Soldin died when a rocket hit a place near where he lay. The rest of the team was unharmed.
He was born in Sarajevo, Soldin was a French citizen. She started working as an intern at AFP’s Rome office in 2015 and was later hired in London. He was part of the first AFP team sent to Ukraine after the invasion of Russia began on February 24, 2022, and arrived the next day.
Soldin has lived in Ukraine since September, leading the team’s scope and regularly traveling to the front in the east and south.
Arman Soldin is 32 years old.
The attack took place around 4:30 p.m. on the outskirts of the nearby town of Bakhmut, which has been the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine for several months. The AFP team was attacked by Grad rockets while they were with a group of Ukrainian soldiers.
According to media support groups Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Soldin’s death means that at least 11 journalists or repairmen and media equipment drivers who covered the war in Ukraine were killed.
“Arman’s brilliant work sums up everything that makes us proud of AFP’s journalism in Ukraine,” Phil Chetwynd, the agency’s global news director, said in a statement. “Arman’s death is a gruesome reminder of the risks and dangers of reporting this war. Our thoughts tonight are with his family and friends and all our people in Ukraine.” Christine Buhagiar, director of AFP Europe, recalled Soldin as “vigorous, energetic, and courageous”.
“He was a real field reporter, always ready to work even in the most difficult places,” he said. “He was completely devoted to his profession.” Just a day before his death, Soldin was describing the horrors of war, sharing a video of doctors operating on the heart of a wounded soldier on social media.
Soldin, who shows a cat perched on his back in his Twitter profile photo, also seems to have a soft spot for animals. Last week, an animal rescue group tweeted a video showing Soldin and his team rescuing an injured hedgehog from a trench in Ukraine. “The team barely found him alive, gave him some water, and took him to safety,” Uanimals ENG tweeted. “They fed the animal and allowed it to recover for a few days before releasing it into the wild.”
AFP photojournalist Daniel Leal reacted to the news of his colleague’s death with a simple message on Twitter: “Always remembered. The ever-loved Arman Soldin.”
