Irpin, Ukraine: US-based filmmaker and journalist was shot dead in Ukraine, according to news agency AFP. Ukrainian officials have blamed Russia for the journalist’s death, though the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear.
Journalist Brent Renaud was killed in Irpin, the Kyiv Independent quoted Andriy Nebytov, the head of the Kyiv Oblast police, as saying. Two other journalists were wounded and hospitalised, Andriy Nebytov claimed.
Among the documents found on Renaud’s body was a New York Times identity card, leading to reports he worked for the paper. The New York Times came up with a statement shortly, saying that Brent Renaud was a contributor for the publication. However, he was not on the publication’s assignment in Ukraine, the NYT said in a statement.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud’s death. Brent was a talented filmmaker who had contributed to The New York Times over the years. Though he had contributed to The Times in the past (most recently in 2015), he was not on assignment for any desk at The Times in Ukraine. Early reports that he worked for Times circulated because he was wearing a Times press badge that had been issued for an assignment many years ago,” the NYT statement read.
Inna Sovsun, a Member of Ukraine’s Parliament, claimed that the journalist, Brent Renaud, was killed by the Russian forces.
A US journalist was shot dead and another wounded on Sunday in Irpin, a frontline northwest suburb of Kyiv, medics and witnesses told media.
Danylo Shapovalov, a surgeon volunteering for the Ukrainian territorial defence, said one of the Americans died instantly and he had treated the other.
Reporters in Irpin saw the body of the victim. A third victim, a Ukrainian who had been in the same car as the Americans, was also wounded.
Ukrainian officials were quick to blame Russian forces for the shooting but the exact circumstances were unclear. Reporters heard small arms and artillery fire in the area.
“The car was shot at. There were two journalists and one of ours (a Ukrainian),” Shapovalov told media.
“Our guy and the journalist are wounded, I provided them first aid, the other one received a wound in the neck, he died immediately.”
Papers found on the American reporter’s body identified him as 50-year-old video documentary shooter Brent Renaud, of New York.
He is best known for producing humanitarian stories from conflict zones. The journalist is a Peabody and DuPont Award-winning filmmaker. He has been a journalist for over two decades. Renaud and his brother Craig Renaud have reported from a number of global hotspots over the past two decades, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt.
Documentary filmmaker Juan Arredondo, also from the U.S., was injured in the attack, according to local reports and a video posted by a spokeswoman for a public hospital in Kyiv. Arredondo, who was lying on a hospital gurney, said he and Renaud were on their way to film people leaving Kyiv when they crossed a checkpoint and came under fire.
“Somebody offered to take us to the other bridge, and we crossed a checkpoint, and they started shooting at us. So the driver turned around, and they kept shooting, two of us. My friend is Brent Renaud, and he’s been shot and left behind,” Arredondo said. “I saw him being shot in the neck, and we got split, and I got pulled.”