Maksim Levin, a photographer and videographer who worked for a Ukrainian news website and was a longtime Reuters contributor, was killed while covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He leaves behind his wife and four children.
His body was found on April 1 in a village north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, news website LB.ua, where he works, said on Saturday.
Levin, born in 1981, was a documentary filmmaker who had contributed to Reuters coverage of the country since 2013.
He had worked in the village of Huta Mezhyhirska. There had been heavy shelling in that area.
The Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine said Levin was “killed by two small arms shots by soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces”. This could not be independently verified.
Maxim Levin. Photo: ReutersJohn Pullman, Global Managing Editor for Visuals at Reuters, said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Maksim Levin, a longtime Reuters contributor, in Ukraine.
“Maks has provided Reuters with compelling photos and videos from Ukraine since 2013. His death is a great loss to the world of journalism. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”
The NGO Reporters Without Borders, which works to protect journalists, said on Twitter Levin was the sixth journalist to be killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded in late February.
“He was unarmed and wearing a press jacket,” it said. “Attacking journalists is a war crime.”
On March 22, she expressed her concern over Levin’s disappearance.
The 40-year-old father of four had worked with Ukrainian and international media.
During fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, he managed to escape encirclement in a town where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed.