“He was a photographer of souls”: a tribute to Antoni Lallican, French photojournalist killed in Ukraine

The 37-year-old journalist, Antoni Lallicanwas killedon 3 October in Komychouvakha, a town in eastern Ukraine, by a Russian First Person View(FPV) drone, while photographing the construction of infrastructure intended to stall the Russian invasion. The evening tribute brought his loved ones and colleagues together at one of his favourite bars, which held an exhibition of his photographs. In their deeply moving speeches, Antoni Lallican's colleagues from French media outlets Mediapart, Libération, Le Mondeand La Vielooked back on his challenging work and deeply human reportages.

"He had this perfect balance between rigour and compassion"

"He was extremely meticulous. For example, I remember a call almost a year after a report, to verify the caption of a photo. Was it taken from the eighth or ninth floor of the building? He wanted to make sure he had the right information. That's what made him such a great, passionate journalist - he had this perfect balance between rigour and compassion," said Justine Brabant, journalist at the French investigative outlet Mediapart, who had worked with Antoni Lallican in Ukraine.

"He communicated intelligently," added Emmanuel Grynszpan, journalist at the French newspaper Le Monde,before calling for the ongoing investigationto identify those responsible, because the "proof of this murder exists." According to Pascale Tournier, deputy editor-in-chief of La Vie magazine: "He was a photographer of souls. When faced with the chaos of the world, he managed to find a sort of harmony." Always professional and cautious, he prepared his assignments carefully. "Photographers are not hotheads. Being a reporter means weighing up risks. Antoni had that discipline," recalled Lionel Charrier, photo editor at the French national newspaper Libération.

A committed photographer

Antoni Lallican got into photojournalism after making a career change in his early thirties. From the Yellow Vest protests in France, to Ukraine or to Nagorno-Karabakh, wherever he went, his lens always focused on people.

For nearly four years, he tirelessly travelled through eastern Ukraine, a region devastated by the full-scale Russian invasion that he had visited more than ten times since the full-scale war began in 2022. His series "A Summer in Donbass" earned him a nominationfor the RSF Lucas Dolega-SAIF Photo Prize in 2024.

He was a reliable witness to the evolution of the war, up to the recent intensification of deadly Russian FPV drone attacks. In one of his last conversations before his death, he told his partner, "People are afraid, no one dares go outside. Something has changed."

Last report in Donbas

His last reporting notes from October 2025 revealed the distress of civilians in Donbass as the Russian army advanced: "To leave everything behind or stay and risk being killed in a Russian strike - that is the question on everyone's mind in Druzhkivka, as Russian forces are now barely fifteen kilometres from the city. With the increase in shelling and the constant presence of drones overhead, Ukrainian authorities issued an evacuation order in mid-August for all residents under 18."

Antoni Lallican is the fourthFrench journalist to be killed in Ukraine since 24 February 2022. During the attack, he was working alongside Georgiy Ivanchenko, a freelance Ukrainian photographer, who was seriously injured and subsequently had a leg amputated. Since 2022, sixteen Ukrainian and foreign reporters have died while covering Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including threewho perished in October 2025 alone.