A Ukrainian photojournalist working for several major Western news agencies, including Reuters and the BBC, has been killed by Russian forces near Kyiv, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Saturday. The body of Maksym (Maks) Levin – who was immortalized in the ongoing clash – was found with two gunshot wounds in the Vyshgorod area just north of the capital, the attorney general’s office said in a Facebook post, citing preliminary reports. “According to the first information, the soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces killed the unarmed Maksym Levin with two shots,” he claims. His closest relatives have been notified, the office told CNN. A residential building destroyed by bombing appears in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on March 3. (Maksym Levin / Reuters) Photographer Markiian Lyseiko told CNN that he last had contact with his friend, known as Maks, on March 12, the day before he disappeared in a suburb north of Kiev, where he reported on fighting and civilian refugees. In their last conversations, Lyseiko said that Levin asked him to come to the Ukrainian capital to cover the war together.
Lyseiko, who had worked with Levin since 2014 documenting the war in Donbass, where he had been involved with Ukrainian soldiers for weeks at a time, described his friend in a March 24 CNN interview as an active and persistent reporter who often looked like him. he was not afraid. “ A Ukrainian soldier is hiding from a helicopter raid near Demydiv, Ukraine on March 10. (Maksym Levin / Reuters) “Since the war broke out eight years ago, Levin has wanted to show the world what was happening in Ukraine, especially in Russia,” Lyseiko said. “The best way to understand Maks is to see his work,” Lyseiko said. “When you watch Max’s movies or see his photos, you will understand him, without words.” The Vyshgorod District Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a criminal investigation into alleged violations of the “laws and customs of war,” the attorney general’s office said, adding that “measures are being taken to establish all the circumstances of the crime.” Levin started working as a photojournalist in 2006, according to his CV at LensCulture, a photography resource site. He worked for the Ukrainian news agency LB.ua and was “well-known” in his field, having worked with Reuters, the BBC, TRT World and the Associated Press, according to the attorney general’s office. In an online statement, LB.ua reported that Levin left behind four sons, a political partner and elderly parents. LB.ua said that in addition to journalism, Levin has worked on dozens of photo and video projects for humanitarian organizations such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF and UN Women. In his CV, Levin described himself as a “documentary photographer / videographer, father, man.” Officials of the Ukrainian service take up position at the Vasylkiv air base near Kyiv on February 27. (Maksym Levin / Reuters) Reuters news agency said on Saturday that he was “deeply saddened” by Levin’s death. “We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Maksym Levin, a longtime Reuters correspondent in Ukraine,” John Pullman, Reuters’s global director of graphics, told CNN. “Maks has been providing fascinating photos and videos of Ukraine to Reuters since 2013. His death is a huge loss for the world of journalism. “Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time,” Pullman said.