On Sunday, a Swiss journalist who was covering the Russian invasion in Ukraine was reportedly shot at and dragged from his car by Russian troops who subsequently robbed him.
According to the Ukraine-based broadcaster Hromadske Int., reporter Guillaume Briquet was dragged from his car by Russian troops despite being clearly identified as a member of the press. The Russians then robbed him of his passport, 3,000 euros, personal belongings, a helmet, and the data from his camera and his laptop.
“Russian troops fired at and robbed Swiss journalist Guillaume Briquet. While working in the Mykolaiv region, his car with PRESS marking was shot, he was dragged from it,” the outlet tweeted. “Russian invaders took away the passport, 3000 euros, personal belongings, a helmet, the material filmed on the camera, and the laptop. He is currently safe in a Ukrainian hospital.
Metro reported that Briquet, 58, was working as a photojournalist in southern Ukraine when his vehicle was fired at while driving by a small village on the way to the city of Mykolaiv.
Images show Briquet’s clearly marked press vehicle covered in several bullet holes, as well as the journalist himself with blood dripping down his face.
The head of the regional military administration, Maria Chorna, said the shots were fired at close range by Russian soldiers.
“They clearly saw that the machine was being used by the press, there were appropriate markings,” she said.
Briquet was bloodied by fragments of glass that flew off the windshield after it was struck by Russian bullets, Metro reported. After being robbed, Briquet drove the bullet-riddled vehicle to Kropyvnytskyi, where he was taken to a nearby hospital.
The journalist uploaded a photo of himself to Facebook, writing that he was “wounded by a Russian commando.”
Briquet isn’t the only journalist to face Russian aggression while covering the invasion of Ukraine. Sky News reporter Stuart Ramsay and camera operator Richie Mockler were each shot during an ambush by what was believed to be a Russian “death squad” near Kyiv.
“The first round cracked the windscreen. Camera operator Richie Mockler huddled into the front passenger footwell. Then we were under full attack,” Ramsay said, according to Metro.
“Bullets cascaded through the whole of the car, tracers, bullet flashes, windscreen glass, plastic seats, the steering wheel, and dashboard had disintegrated,” he continued. “We didn’t know it at the time, but we were later told by the Ukrainians that we were being ambushed by a saboteur Russian reconnaissance squad. It was professional, the rounds kept smashing into the car – they didn’t miss.”
“I do recall wondering if my death was going to be painful,” Ramsay added.
