CNN Team Caught Near Shelling Attack in Ukraine While Following Paramedics: 'This Is Our Work'

Photo: cnn

Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, was following a pair of Ukrainian paramedics in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, which Russian forces have been assailingamid their invasionthat began more than two months ago.

Paramedics Alexandra Rudkovskaya and Vladimir Venzel began a 24-hour shift as the CNN team trailed them on their way to a residential building, where they had been told one person was injured.

But once Ward arrived at the building with the paramedics, another attack began.

She called it a “double-tap”: when shelling hits the same place twice in an attempt to take out any rescue workers who were responding to the first hit.

Ward’s cameraman captured the moment the paramedics ushered them under a staircase to hide from a second round of bombardment.

Neither the paramedics nor any members of Ward’s team were severely injured. One paramedic, Maria, cut her hand on glass.

The CNN team fled following the shelling. Later, they found Rudkovskaya and Venzel on the side of the road successfully treating the injured man for whom they’d been searching. The man had suffered from shrapnel injuries and head trauma and was deafened from the blast. The pair of paramedics rushed him to a local hospital before returning to their base.

That Ward’s team came so close to violence wasn’t surprising, Rudkovskaya said. She told the CNN correspondent that the team was in the “hottest place” with the Ukrainians: “You were in the oven.”

Still, the paramedics said, they were not deterred.

“You feel it’s your duty or obligation to help the people who are still here,” Venzel told Ward back at their base.

“It’s normal, this is our work,” Rudkovskaya said. “Of course it’s scary, like for everyone.”

Since Russia launched its large-scale invasion on Feb. 24, millions have been displaced, and thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded. More than5 million have fled the country as refugees— andhalf are children, according to the United Nations.

“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyytold the European Union in a speechin the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”

source: people.com