A Fox News cameraman and local producer who covered the war in Ukraine have died after the vehicle they were traveling in was hit by fire, the channel said on Tuesday.
The death of camera operator Pierre Zakrzewski was announced in a memo to employees by Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, which was shared with BuzzFeed News. Scott said Zakrzewski, 55, died on Monday after coming under fire in Horenka, a village northwest of Kyiv.
Scott later confirmed that Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova was also killed in the same incident. The 24-year-old worked for Fox as a producer, assisting the network crew.
Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was also injured in the attack and hospitalized in Ukraine.
“Pierre Zakrzewski was an absolute legend on this network and his loss is devastating,” anchor Bill Hemmer told Fox News viewers on Tuesday morning.
London-based Zakrzewski, who was Irish, had been in Ukraine since February, having covered several wars for Fox, including conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. In December, Fox News presented him with an “Unsung Hero” award to recognize his work.
“[Zakrzewski’s] the talents were vast and there wasn’t a role he didn’t play to help out in the field – from photographer to engineer to editor to producer – and he did it all under immense pressure with incredible skill,” Scott wrote in his “He was deeply committed to telling the story and his bravery, professionalism and work ethic were recognized among reporters across all media outlets.”
Kuvshynova, the producer, had been working with Fox for weeks in her home country. In a later memo to employees, Scott said the network delayed announcing his death out of respect for his family.
“Several of our correspondents and producers spent long days with her reporting the news and got to know her personally, describing her as hardworking, funny, kind and courageous,” Scott wrote.