NEWS AND COMMENT-HUTA MEZHYHIRSKA, UKRAINE: the body of Maksim Levin, 44, an experienced and dedicated photojournalist and war photographer, was found in the above-mentioned village which is north of Kyiv where there had been heavy shelling. He had been shot twice, as reported, by Russian soldiers. The photographs of Maks (as he was called) that I have seen show him carrying cats.
I have therefore presumed that he likes cats and while carrying out his work he was rescuing stray cats. It’s a presumption but I think it is a fair one. It is what caught my eye about this man. Of course, and is tragic that he was murdered by Russian troops. Perhaps a marksman shot him because he was a photojournalist spreading the truth to the world. He had a press badge on his chest and therefore it would have been known to the murderer that he was a member of the press.
At the time he was working for a Ukrainian website, LB.ua, and contributing to Reuters. He had a wife and four children.
John Pullman of Reuters said: “Maks has provided compelling photos and videos from Ukraine to Reuters since 2013. His death is a huge loss to the world of journalism.”
According to Reporters without Borders he is the sixth journalist to have been killed in the war. At the time he was unarmed and, as mentioned, wearing a press jacket. This appears to be another war crime carried out by Putin’s troops. You can put it into the pot of numerous alleged war crimes the most recent of which, and the deadliest of which, has been the killing of around 400 civilians in Bucha.
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The report is of civilians’ heads being covered and their hands being tied behind their backs and then shot in the back of the head. The allegation is that they were killed by retreating Russian soldiers. This example of a war crime has shocked the world. It is denied by Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, who lies all the time. He said that it was staged Kyiv. I can remember a UN Security Council meeting when he addressed the other delegates via Zoom and they all walked out as soon as he got to the microphone!
Maks covered the 2014 fighting in the east of Ukraine between Ukrainian forces and separatists backed by Russia. He managed to avoid capture in a town where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
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Seems it was the Russian 64th. They are known for war crimes against humanity. The 64th are butchers of Bucha. And they have done such a good job executing people they are sending them back to Ukraine! And the Ukrainians are ready to massacre them all. And I’ll cheer.