RSF said it had sent two investigators to Ukraine from May 24 to June 3 and concluded that Levin and a friend who were with him had been “executed in cold blood”. “The evidence against the Russian forces is overwhelming,” the NGO said in a statement. The group said it found several bullets and cartridge cases at the scene, the IDs of a friend and soldier accompanying Levin, and found 14 bullets in the car they were traveling in. The RSF also said it had found several items with possible DNA evidence of Russian soldiers near the crime scene and, most importantly, located a bullet right next to where Levin’s body was found. “Analysis of photographs of the crime scene, on-the-spot observations and material recovered clearly shows an execution that may have been preceded by interrogation or even torture,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Delore told the report. “In a war marked by Kremlin propaganda and censorship, Max Levin and his friend paid with their lives for their fight for credible information.” The RSF said it had submitted its findings as well as all the information to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine. On April 2, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said that the journalist’s body was found in the Vyshgorod region, just north of Kiev, adding that “Russian soldiers killed Maksym Levin with two shots.” Russia has consistently denied targeting civilians, including journalists, since launching its invasion of Ukraine, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. CNN could not independently verify RSF’s findings. Levin started working as a photojournalist in 2006, according to his CV at LensCulture, a photography resource site. He worked for the Ukrainian news agency LB.ua and was “well-known” in his field, having worked with Reuters, the BBC, TRT World and the Associated Press, according to the attorney general’s office.
