Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Wednesday that a Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier who was accompanying him "were doubtless coldly executed" when they were searching Russian-occupied woodlands for the photographer's missing image-taking drone.
RSF said it had carried out an investigation into the deaths of Maks Levin and serviceman Oleksiy Chernyshov, returning to the spot where their bodies were found on April 1. The press freedom organization said it counted 14 bullet holes in the burned hulk of their car still at the scene in woods north of Kyiv.
RSF found food rations, cigarette packets and other litter seemingly left by Russian soldiers.
Some of Levin and Chernyshov's belongings were also recovered.
A team with metal detectors also uncovered a bullet in the soil where Levin's body had been found. RSF said that suggests "he was probably killed with one, perhaps two bullets fired at close range when he was already on the ground."
A jerrycan for gasoline was also spotted close to where Chernyshov's burned body had been recovered, the press freedom group added.