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Cameraman and Journalist Killed in Ukraine as Russian Attacks Continue

Pierre Zakrzewski
London-based cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski | The Times

On March 14,  Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova died after their vehicle came under fire in Horenka, a Ukrainian city outside of Kyiv.

Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott announced the tragic news about Zakrzewski on Tuesday. 

“Pierre was a war zone photographer who covered nearly every international story for Fox News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure with us,” Scott wrote.

Zakrzewski, 55, had been reporting in Ukraine since February.

“His talents were vast and there wasn’t a role that he didn’t jump in to help with in the field — from photographer to engineer to editor to producer — and he did it all under immense pressure with tremendous skill. He was profoundly committed to telling the story, and his bravery, professionalism, and work ethic were renowned among journalists at every media outlet,” Scott added.

Kuvshynova was a local journalist working with Fox News. The Ukrainian interior ministry confirmed her death.

Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was traveling in the same car and was injured in the attack. Hall remains hospitalized in Ukraine. 

Russian Attacks Continue

Kyiv and the surrounding areas continued to be a primary target of Russian attacks on Tuesday, March 15.

Around 5 a.m., a Russian airstrike hit a military factory near the city’s center, damaging the surrounding buildings. At least three residential buildings and a shopping mall in the western part of the city were also hit within the span of an hour.

Four people were killed after a missile struck a sixteen-story apartment and engulfed it in flames. Firefighters used a ladder to rescue residents from apartment windows, battling the fire and thick smoke for most of the day.

“I came out with nothing,” said Mykola Fedkiv, 85, a building resident and retired geologist. “I left everything, my telephone, my medicines, everything.”

The strikes appear to indicate a ramping up of attacks from Russia. 

At least one blast on Tuesday resulted from a Russian missile being shot down by a Ukrainian defense system. The downed missile caused significant damage, destroying windows and balconies at a six-story apartment building, but no deaths were reported.

After the attack on Kyiv, a 35-hour curfew was imposed on all the city’s residents. Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced the curfew on his official Telegram channel.

The curfew went into effect at 8 p.m. Ukrainian time on Tuesday and will last until 7 a.m. on Thursday. A curfew was already in place in Kyiv, but it was only during the nighttime hours between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m.

During the 35-hour curfew, Klitschko said residents would not be allowed to leave their homes without a special permit. However, they are permitted to leave their homes to go to a bomb shelter.

“I ask all [residents of Kyiv] to prepare for the fact that they will have to stay at home or, in case of an emergency, in a shelter, for two days,” Klitschko said.

Another strike in northwestern Ukraine killed at least nineteen people on Tuesday. The attack targeted a TV tower near the city of Rivne and left at least nine people injured. 

“The rescue mission is still underway and as of 8:30 a.m., we have nineteen dead and nine injured. We continue to clear the debris. This is not a final number, we need several more hours to clear the entire area,” the head of Rivne regional administration, Vitalii Koval, said on Tuesday. 

Despite the attack on the TV tower, Koval said the region did not lose its radio or TV broadcasting capabilities. 

“We now have free access to satellite broadcasting in the whole Rivne region. We have restored the broadcasting signal to the cable network,” he said.

In recent weeks, multiple Russian attacks have targeted TV towers across Ukraine, including in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Vynarivka.

The barrage of attacks, primarily around Kyiv, has not deterred European leaders from traveling to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

The prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic are traveling by train from Poland to Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

The intent of the visit is “to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to present a broad package of support for the Ukrainian state and society,” a government spokesperson said.

“At such breakthrough times for the world, it is our duty to be where history is forged; because it is not about us, but about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Morawiecki added that he and the other leaders were heading to Kyiv to “show Ukrainians our solidarity” and denounce “Putin’s criminal aggression against Ukraine.”          

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