Documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, 50, was shot and killed on March 13, 2022, in the Ukrainian city of Irpin, outside of Kyiv, according to a Ukrainian police official, news reports, and Juan Arredondo, a Colombian-American photographer working with Renaud who spoke with CPJ in September 2025. Arredondo was injured in the attack.
In a statement, U.S.-based newsmagazine Time said that Renaud, a U.S. national, had been working on a project about refugees in the region for Time Studios, the company’s film and television production wing.
Renaud and Arredondo were traveling from Kyiv to Irpin to film the evacuation of civilians from the city of Bucha, near Kyiv, Arredondo told CPJ. He said that they had crossed a checkpoint into Irpin and were headed to a bridge that connected Irpin with Bucha.
“We started walking toward this direction,” Arredondo said. “Three different cars approached us, the last one spoke English. He was a Ukrainian volunteer who was helping bus people out of Bucha.” The volunteer offered to drive the journalists to the Bucha-Irpin bridge.
Arredondo said they came under an “ambush-style” attack as they were getting closer to Bucha.
Renaud was on the passenger side. Arredondo, who was sitting in the back, saw two soldiers come out of a trench, one pulling out an AK-47 assault rifle. “We’re getting shot,” Arrendondo warned as he ducked.
Their car was shot at as it was turning around. “Everything happened very fast,” Arredondo said. The car was damaged, and they had to wait a few minutes until one of the relays helping to evacuate people from Bucha arrived. Arredondo, who was injured in his left gluteus, was evacuated in a car. Ukrainian forces later extracted Renaud’s body and took the volunteer, who was also injured, to a hospital.
In a March 2022 video interview posted to Twitter by Italian journalist Annalisa Camilli, Arredondo said that Renaud had been shot in the neck. In the video, Arredondo can be seen receiving medical treatment.
“From the ballistic and from the trajectory of the bullet, the conclusion was that Brent was killed by a sniper,” Arredondo said. “I could not tell you if I saw any insignia that showed that [the soldiers who Arredondo saw] were Russians, but the [volunteer] does claim that he did recognize them because of the uniform.” He said that Ukrainian forces were stationed “way, way behind.”
As far as Arredondo knows, the FBI’s investigation of the attack “didn’t lead to identifying individuals.” He said the FBI told him that they didn’t have enough evidence to come to conclusion and that the investigation remains open. “I know they were trying to find who else was using the cell tower in that area at the time when we were attacked.”
Arredondo told CPJ that “there is high probability” that those responsible belonged to the Russian 234th air assault regiment, which committed a massacre in Bucha two weeks later, as they were the only Russian group operating in the area around that time.
On March 13, 2022, the prosecutor’s office for Kyiv’s Svyatoshinsky District announced the launch of an investigation into the attack under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Ukrainian criminal code, which pertains to the “violation of the laws and customs of war.”
Arrendondo said that he was only interviewed once by Ukrainian authorities, when he arrived at the hospital. “I know that Ukrainian authorities did interview [the driver] several times, but I don’t know where that investigation led to, if there are any conclusions, if they were published, or just been kept on a file,” he said.
“I don’t think the soldiers could have seen our press signs on our vests from outside the car,” he added. “The car taking us from Irpin to Bucha wasn’t marked with press because it was a civilian car … evacuating residents from Bucha.”
In a statement, the New York Times said that Renaud, 50, was wearing a press badge from the newspaper at the time of the attack, but was not on assignment for the Times and had not contributed to the paper since 2015. In a separate report, the Times said he had previously worked for other U.S. media organizations, including HBO and NBC.
Renaud’s personal website says that he and his brother worked together as documentary filmmakers and television producers and had received a Peabody Award. The website says they previously had worked from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Latin America.
In March 2022, CPJ emailed the Russian Ministry of Defense and messaged Kyiv Regional Police Chief Andriy Nebytov on Facebook for comment but did not receive any replies. In September 2025, CPJ emailed the prosecutor’s office for Kyiv’s Svyatoshinsky District and messaged the FBI agent in charge of the case to inquire about the state of the investigation but did not immediately receive a reply.