The camera crew of the Portuguese TV channel RTP came under missile fire in the center of Kharkiv on the morning of Friday, Oct. 6. As a result, the journalists received minor injuries, but the film crew's car was completely destroyed, according to Andriy Kovalenko, the Ukrainian producer working with the film crew, who spoke with the Kyiv Post.
In addition to Kovalenko, the crew includes two more Portuguese journalists.
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“We received minor injuries - abrasions, scratches, but everything is normal,” Kovalenko said.
According to the Ukrainian journalist, the film crew arrived in Kharkiv the day before.
“We had planned a Sunday trip to the Donetsk region to work with the military on the front line,” says the producer.
According to him, early in the morning, the film crew planned to go to the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region, where 52 people were killed on Thursday as a result of a separate Russian missile strike. After that, the journalists were going to move on to the Donetsk region.
“All evening [Thursday] there were air alarms. We went to the minus first floor to the storage. The impact happened at 6:50 in the morning. There was a very strong whistling, hum. I was in bed, then I felt a very strong impact. Windows flew out, a window frame with a window fell on me,” Kovalenko says.
The Ukrainian journalist covered himself with a blanket.
“Fire flew into the room, but it was immediately carried away by the explosive wave. I already thought that was all, to be honest. But I quickly got my bearings,” he recalls.
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At this point, Kovalenko ran out into the corridor.
“Dust, nothing visible, people are screaming. There was a man there, whose hand was cut quite badly. I had a tactical first aid kit with me, I gave him first aid,” the journalist said.
After that, Kovalenko got dressed and met with his team.
The journalist notes that first there was a rocket strike, and only 2-3 minutes after that the alarm sounded.
“50 meters from us is the arrival of the Iskander. The hotel is damaged, the houses nearby are damaged. Our car is completely destroyed as well. Rescue work is still underway,” Kovalenko says.
The second Russian missile attack, which killed a 10-year-old boy, his 68-year-old grandmother, and injured 28 other people, occurred three kilometers from the hotel where the journalists stayed.
The head of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NSJU), Serhiy Tomilenko, noted via his Facebook, which included pictures and videos of the scene, that this hotel is very popular among journalists and representatives of various international organizations who come to Kharkiv on business.
The NSJU emphasizes that Russian missile attacks on hotels and catering establishments used by journalists on business trips are a deliberate Russian tactic aimed at intimidating media representatives and the civilian sector.
“The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine expresses full solidarity with Andriy Kovalenko and his Portuguese colleagues and will inform about the new war crime committed by international partners,” Tomilenko wrote.
On the morning of Oct. 6, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the center of Kharkiv, specifically targeting the Kyiv and Osnovyansk districts. Preliminary information indicates that Russian troops used two Iskander-M ballistic missiles in the attack on the city.
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