According to reports, Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter Andrey Mironov were killed in Slavyansk, eastern Ukraine, while covering fighting between government forces and pro-Russian insurgents.
Another media staff, William Roguelon, a French photographer who was travelling with Rocchelli and Mironov and was wounded in the incident, is reported to have said that they were hit by mortar fire as they were taking shelter in a roadside ditch.