This "report will give rise to our sixth complaint" before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, RSF told AFP.

This complaint will relate "exclusively to the case of Maks Levin", which was "mentioned among several other cases in our fifth complaint on May 27", added the association.

The body of Ukrainian journalist Maks Levin and his companion, soldier Oleksiy Chernyshov, were found on April 1 in a forest on the edge of Moschchun, a village about twenty kilometers from kyiv.

The two men had disappeared on March 13.

From May 24 to June 3, RSF sent a team of investigators to the scene, including war photographer Patrick Chauvel, who had worked with Maks Levin for a few days in Donbass province at the end of February.

"The investigations brought to light elements indicating that the photoreporter and his companion were coldly executed, after having been probably interrogated and tortured by Russian forces on the day of their disappearance", write the investigators in their report.

They rely in particular on the photos of the crime scene and the material elements found on the spot: bullets, according to them, commonly used by the Russian army and proof of the Russian presence on the scene ("packaging of food, cutlery in plastic, packet of cigarettes, instruction list for the use of rockets...").

The report makes two assumptions about the course of events.

In the first scenario, Maks Levin and his attendant, whose body was discovered burned, may have been shot after being unknowingly spotted by Russian soldiers.

In the second scenario, the two men could have been intercepted in their car by Russian soldiers, interrogated or even tortured separately (perhaps burned alive for Oleksiy Chernyshov), then shot.

RSF says it was heard by the Ukrainian courts and "gave it nine material pieces of evidence collected on the ground as well as a USB key containing several dozen photos taken by Patrick Chauvel at the crime scene".

Ukrainian photoreporter Maks Levin, May 5, 2019 in kyiv Genya SAVILOV AFP / Archives

Maks Levin is one of eight journalists killed since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The latest is Frenchman Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, killed by shrapnel fired by Russian forces on May 30.

© 2022 AFP