“Truth is the goal”: This sentence has a sad ambiguity in view of the recent events in the war in Ukraine – because as it became known on Tuesday, the number of journalists who lost their lives in the middle of the fighting has risen to five.
As the US broadcaster Fox News announced, cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was killed outside of Kyiv on Monday after his vehicle was hit by “aimed fire”.
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer announced Zakrzewski’s death on the air Tuesday morning, calling the late journalist an “absolute legend” at the news network. “His loss is devastating. “He has been with us for years and reports on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria,” said Hemmer.
Zakrzewski was 55 years old. In Horenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, the cameraman’s vehicle was struck Monday while he was with Fox correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was injured in the incident and remains hospitalized, Fox News reported. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry tweeted that Hall had lost part of his leg.
The deaths of Zakrzewski and Kurshynova bring the death toll among journalists in the war to five, according to Ukrainian reports. American filmmaker Brent Renaud was fatally injured over the weekend while covering the conflict.
Earlier in the day – before Zakrzewski and Kurshynova’s deaths were made public – Ukraine’s Parliament Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova said dozens of journalists were injured in the fighting and at least three were killed.
At least 35 journalists fell victim to the Russian armed forces, including three dead, Denisova wrote on Telegram.
Renaud was shot dead outside Kyiv on Sunday. Ukrainian journalist Evgeny Sakun died in an attack on a Kiev TV tower and Viktor Dudar, another Ukrainian reporter, was killed in fighting near the southern port city of Mykolaiv, she said.
