Fox News videographer killed in Ukraine after vehicle struck
NEW YORK (AP) — A video journalist for Fox News was killed in Ukraine when the vehicle he was traveling in outside of Kyiv with another reporter came under fire, the network said on Tuesday.
The slain videographer, Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, had covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria for Fox, the network said in a memo to staff.
“His passion and talent as a journalist were unmatched,” Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, said in the memo.
Reporter Benjamin Hall has been hospitalized since Monday, when their vehicle was hit in Horenka, the network said.
Zakrzewski, who was based in London, was the second journalist killed in Ukraine in two days. Brent Renaud, a documentary filmmaker and another veteran of covering war zones, died Sunday after Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle.
Scott 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.
He had been working in Ukraine since last month.
“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.