A Fox News cameraman and a Ukrainian journalist travelling with him were killed on Monday in Ukraine when their vehicle came under fire outside Kyiv, according to the network and Ukrainian authorities.

The cameraman, Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and the Ukrainian journalist, Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24, were travelling in the same vehicle as the Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was also injured in the attack in the town of Horenka. Hall remained hospitalised in Ukraine; Fox News has not shared additional details about his condition.

Kuvshynova was a local journalist working with the Fox News reporting team.

Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, wrote in a memo to the network’s staff that it was “a heartbreaking day”.

“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.

Kuvshynova had worked for several weeks alongside Fox News’s crew in Ukraine. Foreign correspondents often rely on local journalists for a variety of critical roles, such as navigating an unfamiliar country and translating during interviews.

Fox News producers and correspondents described her as witty, brave and hardworking, with an interest in photography, music and the arts. “Her dream was to connect people around the world and tell their stories, and she fulfilled that through her journalism,” Scott wrote in a memo.

The director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Audrey Azoulay, on Tuesday condemned the attack that led to the journalists’ deaths. “Journalists have a critical role in providing information during a conflict, and should never be targeted,” she wrote. “I call for the respect of international humanitarian standards, to ensure that journalists and media workers are protected.”

New York Times News Service