WASHINGTON — Two journalists working for Fox News were killed in Ukraine when the vehicle they were traveling in outside of Kyiv with another reporter came under fire, the network said Tuesday.
The network said its video journalist, Pierre Zakrzewski, and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova were killed in the incident in Horenka that also left reporter Benjamin Hall hospitalized.
Zakrzewski, who was based in London, had covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for Fox, the network said in a memo to staff Tuesday morning. Later, Fox announced Kuvshynova's death. She was a 24-year-old consultant helping Fox's crews navigate the Kyiv area.
The incident that killed Zakrzewski and Kuvshynov came after Brent Renaud, a documentary filmmaker and another veteran of covering war zones, died Sunday when Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle.
Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, said of Zakrzewski: “His talents were vast and there wasn’t a role that he didn’t jump in to help with in the field — from photographer to engineer to editor to producer — and he did it all under immense pressure with tremendous skill.”
Zakrzewski played a key role last year in getting Fox’s freelancers and their families out of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, Scott said. He was given an “unsung hero” award at an annual employee event.
“His passion and talent as a journalist were unmatched,” Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, said in the memo.
He had been working in Ukraine since last month.
Kuvshynova helped gather information and spoke to sources for Fox. “She was incredibly talented and spent weeks working directly with our entire team there, operating around the clock to make sure the world knew what was happening in her country,” Scott said.
“Today is a heartbreaking day for Fox News Media and for all journalists risking their lives to deliver the news,” Scott said.
In Washington on Tuesday, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, thanked reporters who are on the ground in Ukraine.
“Risking their lives to tell the world the truth" is something that Ukraine and the world desperately need, she said at the National Press Club.