March 13, 2022

An American Journalist Is the Latest Casualty of Russia’s Ukraine Invasion

Brent Renaud was killed and his colleague was wounded while reporting in Ukraine.

Journalist and filmmaker Brent RenaudJimi Celeste/Getty

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American journalist Brent Renaud was shot and killed while reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a town outside of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday. His colleague, photographer Juan Arredondo, was also wounded, according to reports.

Renaud is among the first Americans to perish in the bloody conflict, during which thousands of people are estimated to have died since Russia invaded its neighbor about three weeks ago. According to the head of Kyiv’s regional police force, Andriy Nebytov, Russian forces fired upon Renaud, killing him, CBS News reported. On Facebook, Nebytov reportedly shared what he says is are photos of Renaud’s body, his passport, and media credentials from the New York Times. (Renaud had worked with the New York Times in the past, but “was not on assignment for the company in Ukraine,” a Times report reads.)

In a video posted by a Kyiv hospital spokesperson and shared by CBS News, Arredondo describes the attack: “Somebody offered to take us to the other bridge, and we crossed a checkpoint, and they started shooting at us,” Arredondo says in the video. “So the driver turned around, and they kept shooting, it was two of us. My friend is Brent Renaud, and he’s been shot and left behind…I saw him being shot in the neck, and we got split.”

PBS Newshour correspondent Jane Ferguson also witnessed the aftermath of Renaud’s death. “Just left roadside spot near Irpin where body of American journalist Brent Renaud lay under a blanket,” she tweeted, the Guardian reported. “Ukrainian medics could do nothing to help him by that stage. Outraged Ukrainian police officer: ‘Tell America, tell the world, what they did to a journalist.’”

Renaud was an award-winning filmmaker, who, in addition to reporting for the New York Times, worked with HBO and NBC, among other outlets. Here’s the New York Times:

Mr. Renaud often worked with his brother, Craig Renaud, and won a Peabody award for a Vice News documentary about a school in Chicago. The two have worked on film and television projects from conflict zones and hot spots around the world.

Over the past decade, the brothers had covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, cartel violence in Mexico and youth refugees in Central America, according to their website.

Mr. Renaud was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University from 2018 to 2019. Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation, posted on Twitter on Sunday that Mr. Renaud “was gifted and kind, and his work was infused with humanity.” Lamenting his death, she said that “the world and journalism are lesser for it.”

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