Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski killed while reporting in Ukraine
A Fox News cameraman was killed in Ukraine on Monday in the same attack that left correspondent Benjamin Hall hospitalized, the network said on Tuesday.
Pierre Zakrzewski, a 55-year-old war zone photographer, died in Horenka, a village outside the capital city, Kyiv, while working with Hall, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement.
The pair were traveling by car when their vehicle “was struck by incoming fire.”
Scott said the veteran photojournalist, who was based in London with his family, “had been working in Ukraine since February. 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.”
“He was profoundly committed to telling the story, and his bravery, professionalism and work ethic were renowned among journalists at every media outlet. He was wildly popular — everyone in the media industry who has covered a foreign story knew and respected Pierre,” the CEO added.
According to Fox News, the “beloved” Zakrzewski “played a key role in getting our Afghan freelance associates and their families out of the country after the U.S. withdrawal” last year.
Jay Wallace, the president of the news network, added: “Pierre was a constant in all of our international coverage. I, like countless others, always felt an extra sense of reassurance when arriving on the scene and seeing him with camera in hand.”
The journalist’s “legacy of his positive spirit, boundless energy and eye for the story will carry on,” Wallace said.
During her daily press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed her condolences to Zakrzewski's family and the Fox community mourning his death.
“He is someone who has served in many war zones,” Psaki said. “He was a war zone photographer who covered nearly every international story for Fox News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure working there. So our thoughts, our prayers are with his family and the entire community as well.”
On Monday, anchor John Roberts announced that Hall, an on-air correspondent who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and U.K., had been wounded in an attack while reporting in Ukraine.
Hall, according to Irina Venediktova, Ukraine's prosecutor general, has a “fragmentary fracture of the two lower extremities.” Ukraine's Defense Ministry on Tuesday said Hall "lost part of his leg." He is reportedly being treated in intensive care.
Fox News confirmed Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova, a 24-year-old Ukrainian who was "helping our crews navigate Kyiv," was also killed in the attack.
Scott described the journalist as "incredibly talented" and said she "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.
"Several of our correspondents and producers spent long days with her reporting the news and got to know her personally, describing her as hard-working, funny, kind and brave. Her dream was to connect people around the world and tell their stories and she fulfilled that through her journalism."
Earlier on Tuesday, Scott said: "The safety of our entire team of journalists in Ukraine and the surrounding regions is our top priority and of the utmost importance. This is a stark reminder for all journalists who are putting their lives on the line every day to deliver the news from a war zone."
On Sunday, American filmmaker and journalist Brent Renaud was also killed in Ukraine, in an attack in the Kyiv suburb of Irpin.
Renaud was working on a video project for Time magazine with Juan Arredondo, another U.S. journalist, when the vehicle the two were traveling in came under attack from Russian forces. Arredondo survived, but the 50-year-old Renaud was killed in the onslaught.
The journalist was described by Ann Marie Lipinski, the director of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, as being “gifted and kind, and his work was infused with humanity.” Renaud was a Harvard Nieman fellow in 2019.
According to the United Nations, 691 civilians have been killed and more than 1,000 others have been injured since Russia invaded Ukraine three weeks ago. The U.N.’s human rights office, however, said the civilian death toll is believed to be "considerably higher.” The U.N. also reported that the war has forced more than 3 million refugees to flee the country.
Cover thumbnail photo via Twitter
