The United States of America said it would consult with the Ukrainian government to determine how Brent Renaud, a US journalist, was killed in Irpin, near Kiev.
The US war correspondent was killed near the capital, Kyiv in Ukraine when he and a colleague came under fire, regional police and a government official have said.
Ukrainian sources blame Russian forces, but details of the incident remain unclear.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CBS News on Sunday that the United States would consult with the Ukrainian government to determine how US war correspondent Brent Renaud was killed in Irpin, near Kiev. Ukrainian sources blame Russian forces, but details of the incident remain unclear.
“I will consult with my colleagues, we will consult with the Ukrainians to determine how this happened and then measure and execute the appropriate consequences accordingly,” Sullivan told CBS.
“It’s part and parcel of what has been the brazen aggression on the part of the Russians where they targeted civilians…and they targeted journalists,” he said.
It said the injured journalist was taken to a hospital in Kyiv.
The adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, confirmed the incident on a Telegram channel.
The journalist being treated at the hospital said he and a colleague were shot after they were stopped at a checkpoint just after a bridge in Irpin.
Juan Arredondo told Italian journalist Annalisa Camilli in an interview from the hospital before being taken for surgery that the colleague who was with him was hit in the neck and remained on the ground earlier on Sunday.
Camilli told The Associated Press news agency that she was at the hospital when Arredondo arrived and that Arredondo himself had been wounded, hit in the lower back when stopped at a Russian checkpoint.
He told Camilli that he and Renaud were filming refugees fleeing the area when they were shot at while in a car approaching a checkpoint. The driver turned around but the firing at them continued, Arredondo added.
Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for the killers to be brought to justice.
“We are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of U.S. journalist Brent Renaud in Ukraine. This kind of attack is totally unacceptable, and is a violation of international law,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “Russian forces in Ukraine must stop all violence against journalists and other civilians at once, and whoever killed Renaud should be held to account.”