«Inter» filming crew under mortar fire

On July 8, n Luhanska oblast a military journalist and reporter of the TV channel «Inter» Roman Bochkala and «Inter» operator Vasyl Menovshchikov together with the Ukrainian military were caught under terrorists’ mortar shelling. The journalist sustained traumas after falling from a height and the operator was unscathed. According to Bochkala’s comment to ‘Telekrytyka’, on July 8 a firefight was going on 10 kilometers away from Luhansk near the village of Metalist. The «Inter» filming crew was on the location of the Ukrainian army brigade No.30. The Ukrainian artillery was firing at the terrorists’ positions, and the terrorists launched a mortar attack back. The journalist was on a hill filming when he heard the command ‘Air’, which meant the shells were coming, so he jumped into a concrete trench from the height of 6 meters; he was wearing a heavy bullet-proof vest and a helmet, and when he fell he landed on his hand so he tore a ligament and dislocated a joint in it. Only two of the military were killed in the shelling; everybody else managed to get to safety. The journalist was evacuated to Luhansk under terrorists’ fire and later had a surgery in Kharkiv, and now returns to Kyiv to heal. He has been covering the events in the zone of the anti-terrorist operation for three weeks now.