KYIV, UKRAINE – Last night, Sky News aired terrifying images of their team coming under fire while covering the battle in Ukraine; highlighting the dangers that journalists endure when covering the conflict. On Monday, while in a car transporting his crew to Kyiv; chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay got shot in the lower back.
During the ambush, two shots struck camera operator Richie Mockler in his body armor. Bullets rain down on the car; The squad screams as the windscreen glass shatters all around them, according to shocking footage. Rounds of fire continued to rain down on the car, despite the group’s repeated cries.
“Stop, we’re only journalists!”
A sabotage Russian reconnaissance group may have carried out the strike. Following a tense confrontation, the team miraculously managed to flee for their lives. They took cover behind a concrete wall before finding refuge in a factory unit.
Graphic Images Pose A Tension For The Media
Ukrainian police eventually rescued them. In an interview with Sky News, Ramsay described how the eerie silence had disappeared by the sound of a minor explosion that rocked the automobile. He added that the bullets that cascaded through the entire automobile; tracers, bullet flashes, windscreen glass, plastic seats, the steering wheel, and console, had disintegrated.
@TimGatt covered a video on the situation
WATCH: Sky News reporters ambushed near Kyiv, injuring one of them pic.twitter.com/zDXGGEwJ40
— BNO News (@BNONews) March 4, 2022
The entire crew is safe and well, including Sky News’ Dominique van Heerden and Martin Vowles. Local producer Andrii Lytvynenko, the team’s fifth member, is back in Ukraine with his family. Two Danish journalists were victims as well while traveling to a battered daycare in Ohtyrka. Despite wearing bulletproof vests, reporters Stefan Weichert and Emil Filtenborg Mikkelsen were both injured.
‘As the scope and cruelty of Russia’s war in Ukraine develops, it is becoming increasingly dangerous for journalists to cover the conflict safely,’ said IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger.
