Tribute to an American journalist killed by Russians in Ukraine

One of the injured journalists is believed to be Colombian-American photographer Juan Arredondo, who is now in hospital, according to a video clip on social media and international media reports.

Footage surfaced on social media of journalist Juan Arredondo at Akhmetdet Hospital in Kyiv, describing him being shot by Russian forces as he drove through a checkpoint in Irbin on his way to photograph refugees leaving the city.

“There were two of us, my friend Brent Reno. He was shot and left behind,” Arredondo said in the video, adding that Reno was shot in the neck. “We broke up and I was attracted to [points to stretcher] …an ambulance, I don’t know. ”

Arredondo, a filmmaker and visual journalist who is also an assistant professor at Columbia School of Journalism, posted photos from Zhytomyr, Ukraine on Saturday, denoting in an Instagram post that it was a “#mission.”

“We don’t have any independent information on his injuries at this time, but we’re working now to find out more and see if we can help,” Columbia College Press Dean, Steve Cole, told CNN.

Arredondo is the 2019 Harvard Nieman Fellow. He has previously appeared in his photographs in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, ESPN, Vanity Fair and other media outlets, according to his bio on his website.

In a statement on Telegram, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister Anton Gerichenko said Renault “paid with his life for trying to expose the treachery, brutality and brutality of the aggressor.”

CNN has not been able to verify which media outlets the US journalists were working for in Ukraine. The police did not name the injured journalist.

Greetings to Raynaud

The Kyiv regional government said on Friday that the northern Ukrainian city of Irbin, located just outside Kyiv, has been the site of major Russian bombing in recent days and has seen widespread devastation.

Raynaud and his brother Craig have spent years “telling true human stories from global flashpoints,” including projects in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Egypt and Libya, according to his online biography.

The director of Harvard University’s Nieman Press Foundation said Sunday that the foundation is “sad” about the death of the journalist, who was the 2019 Harvard Nieman Fellow.

On Sunday, the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the murder and called for the killers to be brought to justice.

Christoph Putzel, a friend and colleague of Renault, told CNN that his death was a “devastating” loss.

“I woke up this morning to the news that Brent, a longtime best friend, wonderful colleague, and the best war journalist that I think ever existed, has just found out,” Putzel told Brian Stelter of CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday.

He added, “Brent had this ability to go anywhere, get any story, listen and communicate what was happening to people who wouldn’t otherwise see it. And it’s a devastating loss for journalism today.”

Putzel said Reno was working on a documentary about refugees around the world when the crisis erupted in Ukraine. “Brent was on the plane the next day,” he said, covering the plight of refugees from Kyiv to Poland.

Several years ago, the couple won a DuPont Award for a story they worked on about arms smuggling into Mexico from the United States.

“What I said when we accepted our award was, ‘The only thing bigger than Brent’s balls is his heart. And I’m standing next to that. That’s kind of a journalist,'” Putzel said.

He added that Renault has a unique ability to make people trust him as he tells their stories in places like Iraq and other war zones.

“You can sit back and spend a week watching all of Brent’s stories over the years in a row and you’ll be amazed. His profession, his ability to reach people, his ability to portray the humanity behind people’s suffering is something I’ve never seen before, and I’ve been honored to work with him for as long as I have. ‘ said Putzel.