France posthumously awards journalist Arman Soldin highest order of merit

France has posthumously awarded AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed while working in Ukraine, the Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour).

Soldin was given the top honour with effect from June 28, 2023 by a presidential decree issued on Thursday, according to France’s official gazette.

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Soldin, AFP’s video coordinator in Ukraine, was killed in a rocket attack in the country’s east on May 9, more than a year after the Russian invasion.

He was 32 years old.

Soldin was part of a team of AFP reporters embedded with Ukrainian soldiers near the besieged city of Bakhmut, at that point an epicentre of fighting that was targeted daily by Russian forces.

The team was walking back to their car near the village of Chasiv Yar when they came under fire by Grad rockets.

Soldin’s death sparked an outpouring of sympathy and tributes from across the world, and France launched a war crimes investigation.

At least 17 journalists and media workers have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, 2022, according to figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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