The Daily Beast reported on Sunday that two of their reporters covering the invasion in Ukraine were shot while on the ground in the northeast region of the country, though both are in stable condition.
Danish correspondents Emil Filtenborg and Stefan Weichert both sustained injuries from gunfire despite wearing bulletproof equipment, with Weichert, 31, suffering a shoulder wound while Filtenborg, 30, suffered multiple wounds including one in his right leg.
The incident occurred while the two reporters were driving near the northeast town of Okhtyrka. Their vehicle was hit with a spray of gunfire, but the pair was able to drive to a hospital despite bleeding profusely.
“The car was a complete wreck, so even though Emil was hit by three bullets and I was hit by one we are extremely lucky that nothing was fatal,” Weichert told the Beast. “We were wearing bulletproof vests in the car but despite that we were extremely lucky that it didn’t hit any organs.”
“Both of us are in a stable condition, we are not in too much pain we are hopeful that this is going to end on a happy note,” Filtenborg added. “We have received a lot of messages from friends and families and colleagues and staff members of places we have worked for in the past and we are very grateful for all of them. Naturally our focus is to get to safety and get back in shape.”
Weichert and Filtenborg are freelance war journalists who live in Kyiv and are filing reports for Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet along with The Daily Beast. They previously covered the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict for the Beast in 2020.
On Instagram, Filtenborg posted a since-deleted picture of his leg injury while recovering in the hospital with the caption, “S— day at work.”
