New Delhi: An American journalist was shot dead and another wounded by Russian forces near Kyiv in Ukraine on Sunday, reports said.
Danylo Shapovalov, a surgeon volunteering for the Ukrainian territorial defence, said one of the Americans died instantly and he had treated the other in Irpin, a frontline northwest suburb of Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials were quick to blame Russian forces for the shooting but the exact circumstances were unclear. Small arms and artillery fire were heard in the area.
“The car was shot at. There were two journalists and one of ours (a Ukrainian),” Shapovalov told a news agency.
“Our guy and the journalist are wounded, I provided them first aid, the other one received a wound in the neck, he died immediately.”
Papers found on the American reporter’s body identified him as 50-year-old video documentary shooter Brent Renaud, of New York.
A New York Times identity card was among the papers, leading to reports he worked for the paper, but the US daily said he was not working for it at the time of his death.