WASHINGTON: Ukrainian police on Sunday killed an American journalist and wounded another by Russian forces in the city of Irpin outside the capital of Kyiv.
According to Andrey Nebyotov, chief of Kyiv's regional police force, 50-year-old filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed in a gunfight by Russian soldiers. Nebytov posted a graphic photo of Renaud's body on Facebook, as well as photos of his US passport and media credentials issued by The New York Times.
A Times spokesperson said that Renaud was "a talented filmmaker who contributed to the New York Times as recently as 2015," but that he was "not on assignment for any desk at the Times in Ukraine."
Nebitov wrote that Renaud, according to an automated translation of his Facebook post, "paid [with] his life for trying to expose the ingenuity, brutality and ruthlessness of the aggressor."
Renaud and his brother Craig Renaud have reported from several global hotspots over the past two decades, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Egypt, according to a biography on their website. The pair won a Peabody Award in 2015 for an eight-part documentary for Vice News about a Chicago school for students with serious emotional issues.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan described reports of Renaud's death as "shocking and appalling", telling "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the US and its allies would apply "appropriate consequences" against Russia for the assassination.
Sullivan said, "I would just say that this is part of an open aggression on the part of the Russians where they have targeted civilians, they have targeted hospitals, they have targeted places of worship and they have targeted journalists." " ,