Brent Renaud, a former contributor to The New York Times and award-winning U.S. filmmaker, has been killed by Russian troops. 

Mr Renaud’s death was announced in a Facebook post by Kyiv’s police chief Andriy Nebytov. Mr Nebytov said Mr Renaud was killed in Irpin, near Kyiv, on Sunday amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

Mr Nebytov said Mr Renaud paid ‘with his life for trying to highlight the aggressor’s ingenuity, cruelty and ruthlessness.’ 

Mr Nebytov said Russian forces opened fire on a vehicle with foreign journalists inside. Another reporter, though unnamed, has been reported as injured.

The New York Times confirmed in a statement that Mr Renaud was not on assignment for the newspaper at the time of Mr Renaud’s death, though it noted that Mr Renaud had previously worked for it.

“We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud’s death. Brent was a talented photographer and filmmaker who had contributed to the New York Times over the years,” Cliff Levy, deputy managing editor at the Times said. “Though he had contributed to the Times in the past (most recently in 2015), he was not on assignment for any desk at the Times in Ukraine.”

Mr Levy noted that the press badge Mr Renaud had on him had been issued for a previous assignment.

Mr Renaud is known for producing films for HBO, NBC, Discovery, PBS alongside his brother Craig.