Ukrainian journalist Maks Levin ‘executed’ by Russian soldiers: report

Ukrainian journalist Maks Levin was “executed in cold blood,” according to a report.

He was 40 years old.

FILE - Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin poses for a photo in the Donetsk region in Ukraine on Jan. 12, 2018. (Inna Varenytsia/)

The photojournalist, who worked for numerous Western media outlets, disappeared March 13 and his body was discovered April 1. According to Reporters Without Borders, he was killed, along with a friend, soldier Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was with him, by soldiers in a forest outside Kyiv the day he went missing.

Investigators for the organization found bullets and casings at the scene and 14 bullet impacts on the car Levin and his companion were traveling in. There was also DNA evidence that attested to Russian soldiers being at the scene.

Relatives of journalist Maks Levin cry at his coffin during his funeral on April 4, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Alexey Furman / Getty Images/)

“Analysis of the photos of the crime scene, the observations made on the spot and the material evidence recovered clearly point to an execution that may have been preceded by interrogation or even acts of torture,” Reporters Without Borders Secretary General Christophe Delore said. “In the context of a war heavily marked by propaganda and Kremlin censorship, Maks Levin and his friend paid with their lives for their fight for reliable information.”

Levin spent parts of three decades working as photojournalist, mainly with Ukrainian news outlet LB.ua, but he also contributed to Reuters, BBC, TRT World and the Associated Press.