According to two Ukrainian officials, American reporter Brent Renaud was fatally shot while reporting near Kyiv on March 15th.
Numerous Facebook posts shared the news from Andriy Nebitov, the capital region’s police chief, who stated that Renaud was “shot dead” in Irpin, an area right outside the capital of Kyiv. Nebitov shared Renaud’s press badge and passport photos.
Renaud had a New York Times press badge. However, the New York Times released a declaration on Twitter saying that although Renaud had actually dealt with the Times in previous years, he was “not on assignment for any desk at The Times in Ukraine.”
Time magazine’s CEO Edward Felsenthal revealed the same day that Renaud was working on a Time Studios task focused on the worldwide refugee crisis.
“Brent was in the region working on a Time Studios project focused on the global refugee crisis,” the editor in chief of Time, Edward Felsenthal, and the president of Time and Time Studios, Ian Orefice, said in a statement. “Our hearts are with all of Brent’s loved ones. It is essential that journalists are able to safely cover this ongoing invasion and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” Felsenthal said.
According to their website, Renaud, 50, worked with his brother, Craig Renaud, on acclaimed video journalism and documentary filmmaking projects for HBO, Vice, and other significant international wire services.
The brothers won a Peabody award for a Vice News documentary about a school in Chicago, two Overseas Press Club awards, and two DuPont-Columbia University awards.
The Renaud brothers have actually recorded and reported in conflict zones and unsafe areas worldwide. According to their website, they have covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the ground, a disastrous earthquake in Haiti, political turmoil in Egypt, and the wars in Africa and the Middle East.
Another journalist, Juan Arredondo, was with Renaud in Irpin when the two came under fire after passing a military checkpoint, according to a video interview with Arredondo recorded while he was being treated in a Kyiv healthcare facility.
🔴🔴 Two American journalist shot by Russian at Irpin bridge. One is under surgery at the main hospital in Kyiv and the other was shot at the neck. pic.twitter.com/9lihX1JJ58
— annalisa camilli (@annalisacamilli) March 13, 2022
The deputy managing editor at the New York Times, Cliff Levy, said on Twitter that “brave journalists like Brent take tremendous risks to bear witness and to tell the world about the devastation and suffering caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
The report of Brent’s death comes just days after Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was shot and killed near Horenka on the outskirts of Kyiv.
H/T Timcast