Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshinov, who was serving as a consultant for Fox News, and the network’s cameraperson Pierre Zakrzewski were both killed on Tuesday, while covering the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Zakrzewski and Sasha were killed when their vehicle was struck by incoming fire. Another Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was injured at the same time.
Announcing the news of their deaths, Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News, said, “Pierre was a war-zone photographer, who covered nearly every international story for Fox News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure with us. His passion and talent as a journalist were unmatched. Based in London, Pierre had been working in Ukraine since February.”
The CEO added that Zakrzewski had also helped evacuate the organisation’s Afghan freelance associates and their families out of Afghanistan after the US withdrawal from the country.
“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,” Scott said.
Pierre was a recipient of Fox News‘ annual employee Spotlight Award “in recognition of his invaluable work.”
He was accompanied by 24-year-old Kuvshinov, who was serving as a consultant on the ground for Fox News in its coverage of the Ukraine crisis. “She was helping our crews navigate Kyiv and the surrounding area, while gathering information and speaking to sources. 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,” said Scott.
“We held off on delivering this devastating news earlier today out of respect for her family, whom we have been in touch with throughout, and we extend our deepest condolences to them,” she further added.
Recommended
The deaths of Zakrzewski and Sasha follow that of American journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud, two days earlier. Renaud, a contributor to the New York Times, was shot and killed at Irpin while driving across a Ukrainian checkpoint. The Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker was working on a multi-part series about refugees around the world, called Tipping Point, for the television and film division of Time magazine at the time of his death.
Renaud was reportedly the first foreign journalist killed during the conflict in Ukraine.