Reporters Without Borders believes russian invaders executed Ukrainian journalist Levin
Maks Levin
Ukrainian journalist and photographer Maks Levin and his fellow soldier Oleksii Chernyshov were executed by russian soldiers near Kyiv knowingly, probably after interrogations and torture
This is the view of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
It is noted that after two investigators visited Ukraine from May 24 to June 3 to investigate the death of Maks Levin during the occupation, Reporters Without Borders published a report with information and evidence.
They show that russian soldiers executed the photographer and his friend and bodyguard in a forest near Kyiv, possibly after interrogation and even tortured.
The bodies of Levin and Chernyshov were found on April 1 in a forest near the village of Moshchun, 20 km north of Kyiv. Two men were killed on March 13.
RSF Investigator Arnaud Froger and French military photo- reporter Patrick Chauvel, who worked with Levin in the Donbas in late February, spent more than a week gathering evidence and clues in Ukraine about Levin's death.
They concluded that Levin and Chernyshov had been executed in cold blood. The evidence against russian troops is convincing.
This is stated in a report entitled "How Ukrainian journalist Maks Levin was executed by Russian forces."
Based on the information and evidence they gathered, RSF investigators were able to reconstruct the events.
On March 10, Levin lost his drone in a forest near Moshchun, trying to obtain footage of a russian military invasion of the area.
After Levin returned three days later, there were already russians in part of the forest. Investigators believe Levin wanted to return his drone. He was convinced that the last pictures he had taken were paramount. But he failed.
RSF representatives arrived in Ukraine on May 24, almost two months after the de-occupation.
However, the area was still dangerous: the russians left traps and explosives.
Accompanied by the security forces of Ukraine, the RSF managed to determine the crime scene. Levin's charred Ford Maverick was still there.
RSF locates the crime scene and burned car of Ukrainian journalist Maks Levin, who was killed on March 13, 2022, in a forest north of Kyiv. May 28, 2022
Patrick Chauvel / RSF
RSF specialists found several bullets at the scene, as well as documents proving Chernyshov's identity, and saw 14 bullets in his car.
One of the bullets RSF found in Maks Levin's burned car on May 28, 2022.
Florent Marcie / RSF
Several items with possible DNA traces, indicating the presence of russian soldiers very close to the scene of the killings of Levin and Chernyshov, were also identified by the RSF, and some were seized.
In the last phase of the RSF-initiated search, metal detectors found a bullet that probably hit Levin.
Bullet found in the ground at the spot where Maks Levin's body was previously located. The bullet and casing were discovered during a search initiated by RSF on May 30, 2022, in the forest near Huta-Mezhyhirs'ka, to the north of Kyiv, Ukraine.
Patrick Chauvel / RSF
Reporters Without Borders cannot answer all the questions that interest them.
However, they made two hypotheses as to how events might have unfolded. The organization hopes that one day the evidence will identify those who committed this double murder.
RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said:
"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.
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. We owe them the truth. And we will fight to identify and find those who executed them."
RSF was received by Ukraine's deputy prosecutor-general, the head of the department investigating crimes against the media, and the head of the Kyiv regional prosecutor's office.
RSF's Arnaud Froger was formally interviewed as a witness in the Ukrainian investigation into Levin's murder. This interview, by members of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), took place in Kyiv on 1 June. During this interview, RSF handed over nine pieces of evidence collected in the field and a USB flash drive containing several dozen photos of the crime scene taken by Patrick Chauvel.
