“The truth is the goal,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, commenting on the attack on Fox News staff journalists.
Susan Scott, chief executive of Fox News Media, announced the death, and said the team’s vehicle came under fire during reporting. Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, blamed the artillery bombardment of the Russian forces.
Scott recalled on Tuesday Zakrzewski as a journalist who “was deeply committed to telling the story, and his courage, professionalism and work ethic were famous among journalists in every media.”
Scott described Zakrzewski’s talents as enormous and said that “there was no role he didn’t jump into to help in this field – from photographer to engineer to editor to producer. He did it all under tremendous pressure with tremendous skill.”
Zakrzewski, an Irish national, was a veteran photojournalist who provided extensive reporting from dangerous conflict areas for Fox News. He had been reporting from Ukraine since February.
Scott said Kovchinova was helping network crews “navigate into Kyiv and the surrounding area while gathering information and talking to sources.”
“She was incredibly talented and spent weeks working directly with our entire team there, working around the clock to make sure the world knew what was going on in her country,” Scott said.
All day honors poured into Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova.
Fox News anchor Brett Baer called the reporters “two amazing people” who were “lost on that battlefield.”
“This is a difficult day,” he wrote on Twitter.
Fox News anchor Bill Hammer, who broke the news of Zakrzewski’s death on air, called the photojournalist an “absolute legend” of the network.
Foreign correspondent Trey Youngst, reporting from Ukraine, recalled Zakrevsky and Kovchinova on Twitter.
“I don’t know what to say,” he wrote about Zakrzewski. “Pierre was as good as they came. Unselfish. Brave. Passionate. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
Remembering Kuvshynova, Yingst wrote, “She was talented, well-sourced, and smart. She loved photography, poetry, and music. We became fast friends because of a shared love of coffee.”
He is also remembered by Zakrzewski’s peers in other networks.
Clarissa Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, said she had a “great privilege” to work with Zakrzewski and “an even greater privilege in calling him a friend.”
“An extraordinary spirit, tremendous talent and one of the kindest and kindest colleagues on the road,” Ward wrote on Twitter. “Very heartbreaking.”