Antoni Lallican, a seasoned, Paris-based photojournalist, was killed by a drone in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region on Friday morning while on assignment, said the European and International Federations of Journalists and the French National Journalists' Union.

Ukrainian journalist Heorgiy Ivanchenko was reported wounded in the same attack. Both were said to have been wearing protective vests marked "Press".

It was the first time a journalist has been killed by a drone in Ukraine, said a statement by the European Federation of Journalists.

“Today, in Ukraine, the main threat to journalists, as to all civilians, is Russian drones hunting people,” said Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU). "These are not collateral victims of the war. By targeting journalists, the Russian army is deliberately hunting those trying to document war crimes."

The circumstances surrounding the incident, which occurred on Friday morning at 9.20 local time, remain under investigation. 

Lallican's work has been published in several media outlets, including French newspapers, Le Monde, Le Figaro and Libération, as well as German publications Der Spiegel, Zeit and Die Welt.

He travelled to Ukraine in March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, and worked extensively in the country, documenting the consequences of the war.

His work focused on the residents of the Donbas mining basin in the southeast of Ukraine.

In January, he won the 2024 Victor Hugo Prize for Committed Photography for his striking reportage, "Suddenly the Sky Darkened", on the Ukraine war.

'Victim of a Russian drone attack'

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday extended his condolences to Lallican's family and loved ones in a post on X.

The French photojournalist was "accompanyingthe Ukrainian army on the resistance front," said Macron. "I learned with deep sadness of his death, a victim of a Russian drone attack."