SLAVYANSK: The body of an Italian photographer was being flown to Kiev on Sunday after he became the first journalist to die covering the violent pro-Russian insurgency gripping the east of Ukraine.
Andrea Rocchelli, 30, and his Russian assistant Andrei Mironov, a former Soviet-era dissident, were killed when they were caught up in a fierce firefight in the rebel-held flashpoint of Slavyansk on Saturday.
Rocchelli was the founder of the Cesura photo agency and a contributor to leading media organisations such as US magazine Newsweek and the French daily Le Monde.
"These deaths are horrid reminders that not enough is being done to protect journalists who risk their lives reporting from conflict zones in Ukraine," said the OSCE's representative for media freedom Dunja Mijatovic.
The Italian foreign ministry said the exact circumstances of Rocchelli's death remained unclear because the situation on the ground was "difficult to verify" even for the Ukrainian authorities.
A ministry spokeswoman said his body had been taken to a hospital close to Slavyansk for positive identification before being flown to the Ukrainian capital.
French photographer William Roguelon of the Wostok Press agency told AFP from the Slavyansk hospital on Saturday that he and the Italian were caught in crossfire after approaching the city in a car together with their Russian translator.
Roguelon said all three men were hit by shrapnel from mortar shells during a sudden flareup in fighting between government troops and separatists just south of the city.
He said the other photographer and the translator had tried to seek shelter in a ditch as up to 60 shells fell.
"They adjust their aim and one of the shells fell in the middle of the ditch," the French photographer said.
Roguelon said he received shrapnel wounds to both legs but could not identify who was attacking the journalists' position.
But he noted that it was the rebels who allowed him to leave the area.
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