Under the Geneva Conventions, journalists working in conflict zones are considered civilians, meaning targeted attacks against them are war crimes. Earlier this month, a team of journalists from Britain’s Sky News was ambushed by suspected Russians despite repeatedly identifying themselves. Reporter Stuart Ramsey was shot and wounded, and the crew was subsequently evacuated to the UK.
Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, condemned Renaud’s killing on Sunday and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
“We are shocked to learn of the death of US journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine. This type of attack is completely unacceptable and a violation of international law,” Martinez de la Serna said in a statement. “Russian forces in Ukraine must immediately stop all violence against journalists and other civilians, and whoever killed Renaud must be held accountable.
In 2015, Renaud and his brother Craig won a Peabody Award for their Vice News documentary. Last chance is moreIt was praised for its “uncompromising look at school violence and its sympathetic portrayal” of troubled public school students with severe emotional disorders.
Hailing from Little Rock, Arkansas, Renaud was also named a Nieman Fellow by Harvard University in 2019. Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, said the Nieman community was heartbroken to learn of his death. “Our Neiman Fellow Brent Renaud was gifted and kind, and his work was full of humanity,” he said. wrote on Twitter.
The Renaud brothers’ work often took them to places of danger, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as cartel violence in Mexico and extremism in North Africa.
Sunday was another bloody day in Russia’s deadliest war, as troops advanced on the besieged southern city of Mariupol, which was hit with a series of bombings. Earlier this week, a maternity ward in the city was destroyed by a Russian strike.
In the deadliest single attack of the war so far, an air strike against a military training base in Yavoriv, western Ukraine, killed 35 people and wounded dozens. Officers. The base was about 10 miles from the border with NATO member Poland.
Sullivan warned that any attack on the territory of a NATO member – even an accidental one – would be met with force by member states.
“The president has made clear time and time again that the United States will work with our allies to protect every inch of NATO territory, and that means every inch,” he told CBS. “And if there is a military attack on NATO territory, that would trigger the invocation of Article 5 and we would bring the full force of the NATO alliance to respond.”
Chris Miller contributed reporting to this story from Ukraine.
