According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Brent Renaud, an award-winning American filmmaker and journalist, was murdered on Sunday in Ukraine while reporting in a suburb of the capital Kiev.
Mr. Renaud, 50, had worked for a number of US news and media organizations in the past, including HBO, NBC and DailyExpertNews. Ukrainian authorities said he was killed in Irpin, a suburb that has been subject to heavy shelling by Russian forces in recent days, but details of his death were not immediately clear. Ukrainian officials said another journalist was also injured.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said in a statement that Renaud “paid with his life for attempting to expose the aggressor’s treachery, cruelty and ruthlessness.”
Mr. Renaud had contributed to The Times in previous years, most recently in 2015, but he was not on behalf of the company in Ukraine. Early reports that he worked for The Times in Ukraine circulated because he was found with a Times press badge issued for an assignment years ago.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Brent Renaud,” said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for The Times. “Brent was a talented filmmaker.”
Mr. Renaud often collaborated with his brother Craig and won a Peabody award for a Vice News documentary about a Chicago school. The two have worked on film and television projects from conflict zones and hotspots around the world.
According to their website, the brothers have covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, cartel violence in Mexico and youth refugees in Central America over the past decade.