Veteran Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, 24, were killed in Ukraine on Monday when the vehicle they and Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall were traveling in came under fire in Horenka, a town northwest of of Kyiv.
“Pierre was a constant in all of our international coverage,” Fox News president and executive editor Jay Wallace said in a statement. “I, like countless others, always felt an extra sense of reassurance when arriving on the scene and seeing him with camera in hand. The legacy of his positive spirit, boundless energy and eye for the story will carry on.”
Fox News confirmed the death of Kuvshynova in a memo to its employees. “Sasha was just 24 years old and was serving as a consultant for us in Ukraine,” the memo said. “She was helping our crews navigate Kyiv and the surrounding area while gathering information and speaking to sources.”
Hall was injured and hospitalized in Ukraine. Fox News reported on Wednesday morning that he has now left the country.
Zakrzewski, who lived in London with his wife, had been in Ukraine since February. He had covered conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan for Fox News. According to a network statement, he “played a key role in getting our Afghan freelance associates and their families” out of Afghanistan after the U.S. 2021 withdrawal and received special recognition from the network late last year for his work.
The circumstances of the attack that killed the journalists remain unclear. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claims the vehicle came under fire from Russian troops. In a Facebook post, Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova described the attack as more evidence of Russian violence against civilians and vowed that her office will focus on “war crimes that have affected the citizens of our partner countries.”
Zakrzewski and Kurshinova are the third and fourth journalists confirmed to have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began on February 25. On March 1, Ukrainian cameraman Yevhenii Sakun died after Russians bombed a television transmission tower in Kyiv. On March 13, American documentary filmmaker and journalist Brent Renaud was killed after the vehicle he was traveling in was fired on in Irpin. American photojournalist Juan Arredondo and an as yet unidentified Ukrainian were also injured in that attack.
This post has been updated.
