A Fox News correspondent who was wounded in Ukraine during an attack that killed two of his colleagues said on Thursday that he had sustained serious injuries but felt “pretty damn lucky” to have survived.
Benjamin Hall was in a vehicle with Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova last month when it was struck by incoming fire near Kyiv. Zakrzewski, 55, and Kuvshynova, 24, were killed.
“To sum it up, I've lost half a leg on one side and a foot on the other. One hand is being put together, one eye is no longer working, and my hearing is pretty blown,” Hall said in a Twitter post along with a photo of himself on a stretcher, wearing an eye patch.
“But all in all I feel pretty damn lucky to be here — and it is the people who got me here who are amazing!”
In an earlier tweet, his first since the attack, Hall paid tribute to his two fallen colleagues.
“I need to pay tribute to my colleagues Pierre and Sasha who didn't make it that day. Pierre and I travelled the world together, working was his joy and his joy was infectious. RIP,” he wrote.
Zakrzewski was a veteran war-zone photographer who had covered many conflicts for Fox News, including in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Based in London, he had been working in Ukraine since February.
Kuvshynova had been helping Fox's crews navigate Kyiv and the surrounding area while gathering information and speaking with sources.
Hall was rescued from the war zone last month and flown to a hospital in Germany.
He was later transferred to a military medical hospital in Texas, where he has undergone several operations.
Brent Renaud, an acclaimed filmmaker and journalist was killed last month when his vehicle came under fire at a checkpoint in the town of Irpin, about 10 kilometres north-west of Kyiv.
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