Brent Renaud, a 50-year-old American journalist and documentary filmmaker, had experience covering war situations.
He had documented the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and now he was in Ukraine to report on that conflict in the heart of Europe.
This Sunday, when he was driving through a roadblock in Irpin, a town located 25 kilometers from Kiev, together with the American photographer of Colombian origin Juan Arredondo and his Ukrainian driver, his vehicle was shot at.
Renaud was shot in the neck which killed him, while his two traveling companions were injured.
He is the second reporter to die covering the war in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion on February 24.
"We were crossing the first bridge in Irpin," Arredondo explained in a video recorded while being treated on a stretcher at the Okhmatdyt hospital in Kiev.
“We were going to record other refugees who were leaving [the town].
Someone offered us a car to take us to the other bridge and as we crossed the checkpoint they started shooting at us.
The driver turned around, but they kept firing.
My friend Brent Renaud had a shot in the neck and stayed behind.
We parted ways ”, stressed the photographer who, at the time of offering his testimony, was unaware of the fate of his companion.
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The wounded journalist, Juan Arredondo, explains how the attack was
The testimony of Juan Arredondo, the journalist injured this Sunday who told how the attack was Video: EPV
Renaud's death was initially confirmed by the Kiev Police, who blamed Russian forces for the shooting.
At first, it was disclosed that Renaud worked for
The New York Times
, an extreme denied by that newspaper, which specified that the journalist had collaborated with them in the past, but that he was not covering the war in Ukraine for that header.
The newspaper attributed the mistake to the fact that the documentary director was carrying an old press card at the time of his death that identified him as his collaborator
.
With the death of
Renaud There are already 11 journalists killed in Ukraine since 2014, the year in which the conflict broke out in the Donbas region, in the east of the country.
Shortly after the death of the cameraman, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for an investigation to clarify the attack, while the United States Government promised that there would be "appropriate consequences" and noted that it is in contact with the Ukrainian authorities to achieve more. information about the incident.
According to his personal website, Renaud frequently worked with his brother Craig in the production of documentaries and television shows and had received the prestigious Peabody Award for his work.
“We are shocked and saddened by the death of American journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine.
These types of attacks are completely unacceptable and are a violation of international law,” Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said in a statement.
The attack in which Brent Renaud died was preceded by others against journalists in the 18 days that this war has lasted.
On February 26, reporter Stefan Weichert and photographer Emil Filtenborg Mikkelsen of the Danish newspaper
Ekstra-Bladet
were on their way to report on a bombed-out kindergarten in the northeastern city of Ohtyrka when their car was shot at and they both suffered serious gunshot wounds. bullet despite wearing bulletproof vests.
On March 4, a Sky News crew had to be evacuated after its five members were shot at again, which they blamed on Russian forces, in Bucha, near Kiev.
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