(John Ransom, Headline USA) Contradicting reports that Russian gunfire or Russian shelling was responsible for the death of US journalist Brent Renaud, new information suggests that it’s possible Ukrainian forces at a Ukrainian checkpoint fired on the car that contained the now deceased film-maker.
Jordan Schachtel, at the Dossier at Substack, said the area was known to be a Ukraine checkpoint, far from Russian control.
“The location of the incident is very significant, because it established that the shooting took place well within a swath of territory that remains within the lines controlled by Ukrainian forces,” reported Schachtel.
The initial reporting that claimed Renaud died under Russian fire came from Kyiv’s chief of police.
“Head of the Kyiv Police Department says that Russian troops opened fire on a car with foreign journalists in and shot dead 51-year-old New York Times videojournalist Brent Renaud in Irpin,” said a tweet by Nick Stylianou at Sky News.
Another video posted via Twitter showed a Ukrainian solider who apparently claimed that Renaud was killed during Russian shelling while Renaud can be seen in the background, dead.
A third tweet, this one by ABC News, features a US reporter who was in the car with Renaud who simply says that “they started shooting at us” without specifying who was doing the shooting.
“Who shot at them? The checkpoint?” asked one Twitter user in reply.
A wounded U.S. journalist in Kyiv, Ukraine, gives account of attack that he says injured him and killed photographer and filmmaker Brent Renaud. https://t.co/2eIFLBVhqy pic.twitter.com/q4CTFHE88t
— ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2022
Much reporting that happens in war is made during chaotic and hasty assessments and doesn’t hold up to even eyewitness accounts that are made under highly stressful conditions.
Schachtel points out the discrepancy, for example, between the Ukrainian soldier’s account of Renaud dying from shelling and the reporter who was in the car with Renaud saying he was shot in the neck.
Also, the Sky News reporter said that Renaud was working with the New York Times, a claim that was repeated throughout social media. The New York Times said that Renaud was not working for them.
In fact, Renaud was filming a documentary covering the refugee crisis in Ukraine, not about the war itself.
“In all likelihood, Brent Renaud was killed by Ukrainian forces. And instead of taking responsibility for the tragic shooting, the Ukrainians used Renaud’s death as an instrument to advance a propaganda campaign against their enemy,” concluded Schachtel.
