(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – US reporter Brent Renaud, an award-winning American filmmaker and journalist, was reportedly killed Sunday while reporting in Ukraine during the conflict.
At the time of death, Renaud, was covering the situation on the ground in a suburb of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.
Renaud was killed in Irpin, a suburb that has been the site of intense shelling by Russian forces in recent days, according to Ukrainian officials, who also said another journalist was wounded as well. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said in a statement that Renaud “paid with his life for attempting to expose the insidiousness, cruelty and ruthlessness of the aggressor.”
The 50-year-old reporter worked for numerous US news and media outlets in the past, including HBO, NBC and The New York Times.
According to The Times, he had contributed to the company in previous years, as recent as 2015, but he was not on assignment for the news organization in Ukraine.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud’s death,” said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for The Times. “Brent was a talented filmmaker.”
Early reports said that Renaud was working for The Times because he was found with a Times press badge that had been issued for an assignment years ago.
“The occupants … kill even journalists of the international media who try to show the truth about the inaction of Russian troops in Ukraine,” Kyiv Chief of Police Andrey Nebitov wrote on Facebook. “Of course, the profession of a journalist is a risk, but US citizen Brent Renaud paid his life for trying to highlight the aggressor’s ingenuity, cruelty and ruthlessness,” the head of Kyiv’s regional police force wrote, also posting what appears to be a graphic photo of Renaud’s body and photos of his American passport and media credentials issued by The Times.
