Brent Renaud won a Peabody Award for his journalism in 2015; GETTY Images
A highly acclaimed US journalist has died during the fighting in Ukraine. Brent Renaud, who was 50 years old, was shot dead by Russian soldiers in the town of Irpin, which lies just outside of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. He had previously worked for the New York Times, but it is unclear who he was reporting for at the time of his death.
Kyiv's police chief Andriy Nebyto said that Russians had opened fire on Renaud and two other journalists, both of whom were taken to hospital.
Juan Arredondo, who was one of the journalists wounded in the attack, told reporters:
"We were across one of the first bridges in Irpin, going to film other refugees leaving, and we got into a car. Somebody offered to take us to the other bridge and we crossed a checkpoint, and they start shooting at us. So the driver turned around, and they kept shooting; there's two of us. My friend is Brent Renaud, and he's been shot and left behind... I saw him being shot in the neck."
Time editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal and Ian Orefice, the president and chief operating officer of Time, released a statement in which they said:
"As an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, Brent tackled the toughest stories around the world often alongside his brother Craig Renaud."
During his extensive career Renaud had worked across the world, including warzones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
While working with his filmmaker brother, Craig, he had won a Peabody Award for the documentary film 'Chicago schools, Last Chance High'.
So far, at least four journalists have been confirmed killed in the ongoing conflict. They include Pierre Zakrzewski, a long-time Fox News cameraman, who was killed alongside journalist Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova, and Yevhenii Sakun, an experience Ukrainian journalist. Sky news footage released last week also showed the UK team coming under Russian fire and a journalist being shot in the chest. Luckily, he was wearing bulletproof body armour, and the team survived with minor injuries.
[Based on reporting by: BBC]
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