Career
Born in Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine), Protsyuk was based and lived in Warsaw (Poland) since 1999 and worked as a cameraman for Reuters since 1993. During his career he covered the conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and made news reports about Poland. Protsyuk was in line to gain Polish citizenship.
Death
Protsyuk died on April 8, 2003 (April 8, 2003 journalist deaths by United States fire).
Protsyuk was filming from a balcony of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where most of the foreign journalists were staying, when a shell fired by a United States. M1 Abrams tank killed him and José Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish television station Telecinco. The United States. soldier commanding the tank was Sergeant
Shawn Gibson of the United States. 3rd Infantry Division. On the same day, a total of three locations in Baghdad housing journalists were fired upon by United States. armed forces, killing three journalists and wounding four.
There were conflicting reports about the nature of the shelling that killed Protsyuk.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, United States. military officials claimed one of their tanks had fired on the hotel in response to incoming sniper and rocket fire. However, journalists in the hotel at the time of the shelling, claimed to have heard no fire coming from the hotel. Moreover, the accidental nature of the incident was subject to further questioning when a former military intelligence official revealed in 2008 that the Palestine Hotel had been listed as a military target prior to the 2003 incident.
Hundreds, including politicians and public figures, attended his funeral in Kiev on 13 April, and the Ukrainian parliament observed a minute of silence in his memory.
On April 8 the United States Embassy in Kiev is annually picketed in his memory.