French prosecutors said Sunday they had opened a “war crimes” investigation after a drone killed a French photojournalist on assignment in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Antoni Lallican, 37, was embedded with Ukraine’s Fourth Armoured Brigade near the front line in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine when he was killed on Friday, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Ivanchenko was wounded in the same attack, which Ukraine’s military and French President Emmanuel Macron blamed on Russia.

The investigation has been entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes, France’s anti-terror unit PNAT said.

A “war crimes” charge falls under PNAT’s remit and consists of “deliberate attacks on the life and physical or mental integrity of a person protected by international humanitarian law”.

Lallican, an award-winning photojournalist whose work had appeared in leading French and international media, is the first journalist to be killed by a drone in Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the European and International Federations of Journalists.

At least 17 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the groups said, while UNESCO puts the number at 22.

They include AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed by rocket fire in 2023.