Families of Two Journalists Killed in Ukraine Sue Fox News Over Safety Failures
The parents of producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova and the family of cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski say Fox and correspondent Benjamin Hall ignored warnings before the March 2022 attack near Kyiv.
The families of two journalists killed while covering the war in Ukraine are suing Fox News, arguing the network put the pursuit of a dramatic story ahead of the safety of its own people, according to reporting by NPR.
On March 14, 2022, a Russian strike hit the vehicle carrying Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall near Kyiv. Cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and 24-year-old Ukrainian producer Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova were killed, along with two Ukrainian soldiers traveling with them. Hall survived with severe injuries and lost his right leg and most of his left foot.
Kuvshynova's parents allege that Fox and Hall disregarded repeated warnings to stay away from the area outside Kyiv, near the suburb of Irpin, where the group was working. The suit is being heard in New York state court. Two security advisers who worked for Fox in Ukraine back up that account. One of them, Aaron King, told NPR: "If you took Benji out of the equation, this never would have happened." Security adviser Shane Thomson is also named alongside Kuvshynova's parents in the account.
Hall has described his own intentions differently. In his memoir "Saved," he wrote that the team's "explicit intention was to avoid the front lines, stay clear of active fighting, remain within the city's borders." He also wrote that over a long career he learned to "control my fear, even bury it, and keep moving forward into danger."
Fox has pushed back. In a statement, the network said, "The safety of our journalists has always been our number one priority," and disputed the claims in the lawsuit, noting that the deaths occurred in an active war zone. In court filings, the company has also argued on technical and legal grounds that the case should not go forward.
Those arguments have not ended the case. A New York judge, Mary Rosado, ruled the suit can proceed to discovery, rejecting Fox's bid for dismissal, though some defendants were dropped in December 2024. Discovery means both sides will have to turn over internal records, which could expose how Fox weighed security advice before sending crews toward the front.
The case raises a question that news organizations have faced for years: who bears responsibility when freelancers, local staff and correspondents are sent into conflict zones? Kuvshynova was 24 and Ukrainian, and her parents say the network owed her the same protection as any staff member.
Four years after the attack, the case is likely to turn on what Fox's security team told its crews on March 14, 2022, and who decided to go ahead anyway.
