US Secretary of State Blinken announced the death of an US citizen in Ukraine at a press conference on March 17, AP reported. Mr. Blinken said he did not have any further details about the incident.
A US State Department spokesman said the US citizen died in Ukraine on March 17. We send our most sincere condolences to the family for their loss. Respecting the family's privacy during this difficult time, we have no further comments," said the US State Department spokesperson.
Earlier on March 17, a Ukrainian official also confirmed that an American had been killed in the country.
CNN reported that the US citizen who died in Ukraine was identified as James Whitney Hill, 67, born in Minnesota. The US news agency quoted this information from Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Home Affairs.
Meanwhile, according to The Hill, police in Ukraine's Chernihiv region announced in a Facebook post that an American was among the dead in the heavy artillery attack. However, Chernihiv regional police did not specify where the attack occurred in the city.
Chernihiv, located northeast of Kiev, was heavily bombed by Russian forces. Chernihiv estimated that 53 people had been taken to the morgue in the past 24 hours, the AP news agency reported.
A few days earlier, American media reported that American citizen Brent Renaud, an independent filmmaker who had previously collaborated with The New York Times, had died in the Ukrainian city of Irpin and was confirmed by Kiev police on March 13.
The war in Ukraine officially entered its third week on March 17. The latest intelligence reports from the US and UK show that the Russian advance on major cities in Ukraine has stalled.
However, in Chernihiv, southeastern Kharkiv - Ukraine's second largest city - Russian missile and artillery attacks have affected the area for weeks. The Ukrainian Emergency Service informed on March 17 that a collective motel in Chernihiv was hit by a bullet, killing the entire family, including the wife, husband and 3 children.
On the same day, 21 people were killed in airstrikes that destroyed a school and a community center in Merefa, near Kharkiv, officials added.
The Kharkiv region, like most other major residential centers in eastern Ukraine, was heavily bombed amid Russia's efforts to attack there.
