Two Sky News journalists have described the harrowing moment they were shot at, with one of them wounded by a bullet, by a Russian "death squad" while driving near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Stuart Ramsay, a chief correspondent, who is originally from Porthcawl, and Dominique van Heerden, a senior foreign producer, recalled the sudden ambush on February 28, which saw the two of them, along with three other crew members, frantically try to escape a barrage of bullets.
Stuart, who was certain he was "going to die", was shot in the lower back, under his body armour, while Dominique risked her life by leaving the car and crawling under the firing line to get to safety. Thankfully the five of them survived, after they managed to take cover and were later rescued by Ukrainian police.
In terrifying footage from the attack shown on ITV's Lorraine on Thursday, March 31, the crew can be heard screaming "stop, British journalists" as unrelenting rounds of bullets rained down on their car. Later on, safe from the line of fire, the crew can be heard breathing heavily and assessing any injuries.
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Speaking to Lorraine, Stuart said it was "miraculous" that they survived the attack, which they are "pretty certain" was a targeted assault - at least on their car. He said: "It was a pretty certain professional attack by soldiers. They didn't miss much. I've been shot at a lot in my working life - usually they miss, but this was absolutely dead-on."
Dominique said: "We don't know if we were targeted because we are journalists - we don't believe so. We believe we were just targeted for being a civilian car driving on a road. And that is really the point of putting the story out - what happened to us is actually not extraordinary. It's happening to Ukrainian civilians all the time. It's just extraordinary that it was caught on camera - that's what makes it so compelling."
"We know there was at least another attack the day before yesterday - another family all killed in their car," Stuart added. He also said the crew "could sense" something was about to happen. "We had a good idea something was about to come. We'd been directed down the road by the police - but I kick myself, because I didn't say, 'When is the last time you went down it?'"
Dominique described how they were "confused initially" by the attack and thought the attack was in error. She said: "We were in a small car, we weren't marked as press because that was the guidance. But the general guidance was that moving around like that was the safest way."
She continued: "We knew we had to get out of the car but we also thought it was a mistake and that's why we didn't get out of the car immediately and that's why we identified ourselves as journalists. But once we did that, the incoming [bullets] just increased."
The two of them described how the bullets came from both the front and the life side, causing signficant damage to the car's windscreen, wheel, and roof. "I was thinking, 'I'm going to die. I just wonder how much it's going to hurt,'" said Stuart. "And then I got hit and actually it didn't hurt that much"
Asked how he is now, he said: "I'm okay. I've had an operation and they've taken out the scarring and it's healing. It's okay. I think I was very, very lucky. The surgeons said to me it was just beyond luck." Meanwhile, Dominique recalled how she was curled up in the footwell at the back of the car trying to get her helmet on during the attack.
"I looked down and I could see down that there was an embankment. So we knew that was possibly our best chance for cover, if the shooting was coming from the front and the left, the right side was our only option," she said. "Everybody individually had to in their own minds when and how they were going to [get to the embankment]. We couldn't help each other in that scenario."
Dominique later told Stuart that she "knew 100% that she was going to die in the car" and that she had to escape - subsequently jumping out just as the bullets went "completely crazy"
"I look back at that footage and you can see me crawling under fire and I thought, why on earth did I choose that moment? But courage is a funny thing, you sort of pluck it up at the time you do and off you go for whatever reason. I was convinced I was going to be shot when I got out - so convinced I shut my eyes really tight, like wen you're waiting for a balloon to pop...I just thought, hopefully, when I'm shot it's not in a very vital place," she said.
Stuart admitted to Lorraine that there was deliberation at Sky News whether they should run the story about their experience - but they were determined to get it out their to show the plight of Ukrainian refugees attempting to flee, who are being targeted by "death squads" in Ukrainian territory.
"The Ukraine Government had said there are death squads of Russians working inside their territory and to be honest most of us didn't really believe them. We thought in this instance it was a rogue checkpoint - that's why we shouted back. But the Ukrainians were right, they really were there - and a number of people on that bridge have also been killed in the day after us," he said.
Asked if they would go back, Stuart said: "Definitely we will go back. When? It's not certain. We've all got colleagues out their as well, and friends. We will go out there. That's our job - we all look at it like that."
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