Cheating death: ‘I was ambushed by Russian hitmen’

·35 min·2 clips

Richie Mockler describes the ambush turning into "all hell" as tracer tore through a Hertz Toyota Corolla near Kyiv.

Andy says Neil is away, so the show runs with something a little different this week. He opens by asking what it means when journalists go into danger without the same protection police officers often have. The story is set in Kyiv in February 2022, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine. A Sky News team is returning to its hotel when a tyre blows and the car creeps on, not yet aware of what is coming. Then the shooting begins. A volley of bullets hits the car, then another, and another. Correspondent Stuart Ramsey is hit. The team scrambles to safety, but Richie Mockler, the man behind the camera, is trapped in the footwell and keeps filming as rounds strike the vehicle. Two of the bullets are stopped by his body armour. He recalls tracer going past the door, the sound of the rounds, and the moment he thought he was done for. He talks about years in hostile environments, his 23 years in the job, and his time as a Royal Marine before journalism. The conversation keeps returning to his wife and kids, and to the anger of not being ready to go. The episode stays close to the sequence from the blown tyre to the bullets and the rush to safety, focusing on one attack, one survivor, and the question of how you act after the first burst has already hit. It ends as a plain account of being caught in a war crime and living with the shock after.

As heard by us

A tight, grim account of a Kyiv attack, anchored by Richie Mockler's memory.

The Crime Agents delivers a tense, immediate account of the Kyiv attack that left a Sky News team under fire just days after Russia invaded Ukraine.

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Why you'd press play

You want one very bad day in Kyiv, told by the man with the camera.

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