“He disappeared in the zone of hostilities on March 13 in the kyiv region. On April 1, his body was found near the village of Gouta Mezhyguirska”, a few tens of kilometers north of the capital, said on Telegram the head of the presidential administration Andriï Yermak.
For the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, the photographer was the victim of shots by Russian soldiers.
“According to preliminary information, Maksym (better known by its diminutive of Maks, editor’s note) Levine, who was unarmed, was killed by two small arms fire carried out by soldiers of the Russian armed forces”, a writes the prosecution in a press release.
He added that he had opened an investigation for “violation of the laws and customs of war”.
Mr. Levine, 40 years old and father of four sons, has collaborated with many Ukrainian and international media.
In 2014, at the start of the war between kyiv and the pro-Russian separatists, supported by Moscow in eastern Ukraine, he managed to get out of Ilovaisk, a city in the south-east then surrounded, where hundreds of soldiers Ukrainians had been killed in a few days.
“He was unarmed and wore a ‘Press’ jacket” and was killed like five other journalists since the start of the war in #Ukraine”, reacted for its part the organization Reporters without Borders (RSF).
“Targeting journalists is a war crime,” recalls RSF on its Twitter account.
Several Ukrainian and Western journalists have been killed and dozens more injured in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
At least three of them died in northeast kyiv where fighting raged between Ukrainian forces and the Russian army, which has retreated in recent days and abandoned dozens of villages around the capital.