TVR journalists caught in Kharkiv clashes emerge unscathed

Journalists from Romania’s public broadcaster TVR were reporting on events near Kharkiv, in the north-eastern region of Ukraine, when they were pinned down by gunfire. No member of the team was harmed in the clashes.

Ukraine’s impressive counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region liberated over 3,000 square kilometers that the Russian forces had occupied up until last week. One of the areas liberated was the city of Kupiansk, an important logistical center for the invading army located near the Russian border.

The TVR journalists were in Kupiansk reporting on recent events when an explosion took place barely 20 meters away. The three journalists – Alex Costache, Bogdan Militaru, and Dorel Oancă – had to duck on the ground until the fighting died down, at which point their Ukrainian guides asked them to leave.

Despite the gunfire and the shelling around them, the TVR team continued to film. The resulting video shows Alex Costache explaining what was happening while sheltering behind a military truck.

Kupiansk has been under Russian control since April, and the Romanian journalists asked locals who were now leaving the city about their experiences.

“It was hard, very hard. They beat and tortured us. They stole cars. Not only the Russian soldiers but those from Luhansk and Donetsk as well,” said one local interviewed by the TVR team.

As the Russian army retreated, more horrors were discovered. Ukrainian troops found the bodies of 400 civilians and 17 Ukrainian soldiers buried in a mass grave just outside Izyum, another city not far from Kharkiv.

(Photo source: Stirile TVR online, video capture)