Brent Renaud, US Journalist, Shot Dead In Ukraine

Journalists working in conflict zones are considered civilians under the Geneva Conventions, and attacks against them are considered war crimes. Earlier this month, a team of journalists from Sky News in Britain were ambushed, believed to be by Russian forces, despite clearly identifying themselves. Correspondent Stuart Ramsay was shot and wounded, and the team had to be evacuated to the UK.

Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director with the Committee to Protect Journalists, strongly condemned the killing of Brent Renaud and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

“We are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of U.S. journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine. This kind of attack is completely unacceptable and violates international law,” Martinez de la Serna said in a statement. “Russian forces in Ukraine must immediately cease all violence against journalists and other civilians, and those who killed Renaud should be held responsible.”

In 2015, Brent Renaud and his brother, Craig, received a Peabody Award for their Vice News documentary Last Chance High, which received praise for its honest portrayal of school violence and troubled students with severe emotional disorders.

Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Renaud was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2019. Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, expressed her sorrow over Renaud’s death and described him as a skilled and compassionate journalist.

The Renaud brothers often covered dangerous situations in their work, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, cartel violence in Mexico, and extremism in North Africa.

Sunday witnessed another violent day in Russia’s ongoing war, as forces advanced on the besieged city of Mariupol and carried out bombing attacks. Earlier in the week, a maternity ward in Mariupol was destroyed by a Russian strike.

In one of the deadliest attacks of the war, an airstrike on a military training base in Yavoriv, western Ukraine, claimed the lives of 35 people and injured many more. The base was located approximately 10 miles from the border with Poland, a NATO member.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned that any attack on the territory of a NATO member, even if accidental, would receive a strong response from NATO nations.

“The president has repeatedly made it clear that the United States will work with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory, and that includes every inch,” Sullivan said. “If there is a military attack on NATO territory, it would trigger the invocation of Article 5, and we would mobilize the full strength of the NATO alliance to respond.”

Chris Miller contributed reporting to this story from Ukraine.