An award-winning US journalist and filmmaker has died in northern Ukraine after he was fatally shot in the neck by Russian forces in Irpin, near Kyiv, earlier today.
Brent Renaud was killed and two other reporters were wounded and rushed to hospital, according to Kyiv regional police chief Andrey Nebitov, who shared a photograph of what appeared to be Mr Renaud’s press credentials issued by The New York Times.
The 51-year-old was in a car with other foreign members of the press when Russian troops opened fire on the vehicle, reports say.
A video released on Twitter by the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) showed his colleague on a stretcher in the hospital, describing the horrifying ambush.
‘We are across the first bridge in Irpin, we were going to film refugees leaving’, the colleague explains.
‘We got into a car as someone offered to take us to the other bridge and we crossed the checkpoint and they started shooting at us.
Mr Renaud’s colleague said he was shot in the neck in Irpin, outside of Kyiv
‘So, the driver turned around but they kept shooting. There was two of us, my friend is Brent Renaud and he has been shot and left behind. He got shot in the neck. We got split.’
When Mr Renaud’s colleague was interviewed, he was still unaware of his friend’s death, which was later confirmed by Verkhovna Rada and witnesses.
In a statement on Twitter, PBS foreign correspondent Jane Ferguson said: ‘Just left roadside spot near Irpin where body of American journalist Brent Renaud lay under a blanket.
‘Ukranian medics could do nothing to help him by that stage. Outraged Ukranian police officer: “Tell America, tell the world, what they did to a journalist”.’
A photo shared online, which Metro.co.uk has chosen not to publish, shows Mr Renaud’s bloodied body partially covered under a blanket.
A statement released by the New York Times also said: ‘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 The Times in Ukraine.
‘Early reports that he worked for Times circulated because he was wearing a Times press badge that he had been issued for an assignment many years ago.’