Four journalists killed covering Russia-Ukraine war
Two Ukrainian journalists missing since the start of conflict

Four journalists have been killed since Russia launched a full-scale assault on Ukraine on February 24. On Monday, March 14, an attack on a vehicle carrying a news team with the U.S. broadcaster Fox News killed cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova and injured correspondent Benjamin Hall.
A day earlier, U.S. reporter and documentary-maker Brent Renaud was shot and killed at a checkpoint in Irpin in an attack that also injured U.S. photographer Juan Arredondo. Ukrainian camera operator Yevhenii Sakun died on March 1 when Russian military forces shelled a television tower in Kyiv, killing five people. The war has taken a catastrophic toll on civilians as fighting intensifies, with the UN estimating that that more than 3.3 million refugees have fled the country. (Photo shows an apartment building damaged by shelling in a residential district of Kyiv – Reuters/Marko Djurica )
More from CPJ’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war
- Journalist Viktoria Roshchina disappears in Russian-occupied area of Ukraine
- Ukrainian journalist Oleh Baturyn missing since March 12
- Experts from CPJ and Human Rights Watch discuss human rights and press freedom violations during the Russia-Ukraine war
- Robert Mahoney: How the West can help the media victims of Putin’s war
- Calling the war ‘war’: Meduza’s Galina Timchenko bucks Russia’s censorship on Ukraine
- ‘Hard, emotional and painful’: Journalists in Ukraine on covering Russia’s invasion
- Russian forces in Ukraine detain and harass journalists; authorities clamp down on Russian media
- Russia-Ukraine watch: CPJ’s weekly update on how the war is affecting press freedom
- Additional updates, in-depth reports and CPJ statements
Safety advice for journalists covering war and related unrest
- War reporting: English | Ukrainian | Russian
- Arrest and detention: English | Ukrainian | Russian
- Civil disorder: English | Ukrainian | Russian
- Internet shutdowns: English | Ukrainian | Russian
- Risk assessment template: English | Ukrainian | Russian
More media news
- Reuters reports that Russian state media regulator Roskomnadzor’s demand that Google stop spreading what Roskomnadzor called threats against Russian citizens on YouTube might be a step toward an outright block on the video platform.
- At least 10 journalists were detained in Russia while preparing to cover rallies and events in support of the Russian military and in celebration the “annexation of Crimea”
- U.S. “looking very hard” at whether Russia is targeting journalists in Ukraine; Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall evacuated and “in good spirits”
- UK communications regulator Ofcom revoked Russia Today’s broadcast license; Canada removed RT and RT France from Canadian television
- Twitter announced new measures to combat disinformation surrounding the war, including labeling information from Russian state media as such and removing false information
- Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says Russia is launching cyberattacks to destroy TV and radio signals
- Russia blocks independent news website Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot), Belarusian website Euroradio, the website of Netherlands-based investigative news.
Journalists Attacked
Heber López Vásquez

The day before his killing, López published a short article on NoticiasWeb accusing Arminda Espinosa Cartas, a former municipal official in Salina Cruz, of corruption, and alleged that she tried to coerce locals to vote for her. Multiple news articles published after the killing identified one of the arrested suspects as Espinosa Cartas’ brother, named only as “Ricardo N,” and López’s brother told CPJ that he believed the journalist was killed in retaliation for that article.