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Every bit with many wars, the Russian invasion of Ukraine changes constantly.

Areas of attack and tactics change, battlefields appear of a sudden in previously repose areas, kinetic places go silent.

It all means that to report on events, you accept at the outset that your plans will modify.

We ready off cautiously for the town of Bucha, where a Russian convoy had been destroyed by the Ukrainian ground forces the previous 24-hour interval. Trusted contacts in the town told u.s.a. it was placidity and promised to prove united states of america the convoy and tell united states nigh what had happened.

War in Ukraine - live updates on the Russian invasion

Fifty-fifty as we left central Kyiv through a city now being strengthened with actress soldiers, by motorways and major roads where volunteers were digging trenches, and the army were positioning Howitzer cannons for the defence of the capital, it was clear our journey was to be hard.

Constant checkpoints need to exist negotiated with care. The tension is palpable, the fighters are jumpy, and it's all exacerbated by the abiding distant sounds of car gun fire and crump of artillery and mortars.

The boondocks is only 30 kilometres or and then from the center of Kyiv, but our journeying took united states of america hours. Roads were airtight and we were redirected countless times.

On our manner, in the altitude, we could see Russian helicopter gunships criss-crossing in the air, noses dipping towards the ground as they opened burn down.

From being a quiet location, the whole of this role of the countryside - including our intended destination - had turned into a battlefield.

Pointing weapons into our car, the last Ukrainian checkpoint suggested we shouldn't go whatever further. We elected to call it a day and return to the heart of the city. We had tried to study, but it was getting likewise difficult.

But that's what happens, information technology's simply how information technology is.

The roads we had taken were now unsafe. Well, worse than that, really: they were instantaneously new front lines.

So, we decided to cutting down to the western office of the urban center and re-enter from a different management.

We stopped at a checkpoint and spoke to the soldiers and police, request them if the road into Kyiv was passable.

A police officer walked to the car and handed us water ice creams through the window, telling us nosotros could turn left and go downward the road to Kyiv - he said it was open.

We set off, but it was deadly serenity, and it's fair to say we were concerned. Simply we travelled slowly forward towards an intersection. There was rubble in the road, only that's normal now. At that place were no soldiers, information technology all seemed deserted.

And then out of nowhere a small explosion and I saw something hit the car and a tyre burst. Nosotros rolled to a terminate.

And so our earth turned upside down.

The offset round cracked the windscreen. Camera operator Richie Mockler huddled into the front end rider footwell. And then we were nether full attack.

Bullets cascaded through the whole of the car, tracers, bullet flashes, windscreen glass, plastic seats, the steering wheel, and dashboard had disintegrated.

We didn't know it at the time, but we were later told by the Ukrainians that nosotros were existence ambushed past a saboteur Russian reconnaissance squad. It was professional, the rounds kept smashing into the car - they didn't miss.

Producer Martin Vowles, who was driving, got out of the motorcar first, quickly followed by Andrii Lytvynenko, our local producer, leaving me, Richie, and my producer Dominique Van Heerden within, taking cover in the footwells and across the backseat.

At this stage we thought it was a Ukrainian ground forces checkpoint firing at u.s.a. and that information technology was a mistake, then we started screaming nosotros were journalists, but the rounds kept coming.

We knew nosotros had to become out to survive, but the incoming fire was intense.

Dominique pushed open her door a little farther and slipped to the ground, crawling towards a motorway barrier and then dived down a 40-human foot embankment, rolling to the bottom.

Richie was shouting to me, but I tin't really recollect much.

I do recall wondering if my death was going to exist painful.

And so I was hit in the lower back. "I've been hit!" I shouted.

But what amazed me was that information technology didn't hurt that bad. It was more like being punched, really.

It was strange, but I felt very at-home. I managed to put my helmet on, and was virtually to effort my escape, when I stopped and reached back into a shelf in the door and retrieved my phones and my printing card, unbelievably.

Richie says I then got out of the auto and stood upwards, before jogging to the edge of the embankment and so started running. I lost my balance and savage to the bottom, landing like a sack of potatoes, cut my face. My armour and helmet almost certainly saved me.

But Richie was still inside the car. The rounds were ploughing into the car every time he moved. He was actually beingness protected by the engine block - he knew that.

He chosen out, and we shouted at him to come up. But then silence. It seemed like an eternity before he emerged over the barrier and jumped down towards us, followed by a hail of gunfire.

At the bottom, we regrouped. The five of us were alive. We couldn't believe information technology.

We were in shock, no doubt most it. Simply elated to exist alive. Martin said to me, information technology'southward a phenomenon whatsoever of us got out, let alone all v of united states of america.

Yet in the firing line, we headed away from the car, using a concrete wall for cover.

We spotted a factory unit of measurement with an open gate and sprinted one at a time inside, looking for cover. Nosotros were convinced the shooters would come to stop us off.

A door opened, and three caretakers beckoned for united states of america to come inside their workshop.

Nosotros ran inside and gathered together, while Martin and Dominique rang through to Heaven staff members, signalling the start of a frantic effort to try to start to adjust a rescue for us.

Nosotros knew it would accept hours and fully expected to spend the night in the workshop while the logistics were worked on. Extracting people from remote locations in the middle of a war that keeps moving is fiendishly difficult.

Outside, the sounds of the battle intensified. We had no idea what was going on, but nosotros were scared that at whatever moment the garage doors would explode inward, and gunmen would come to kill us.

Information technology'due south often similar this in hairy situations - you survive the offset part and become to condom, and and so information technology all starts going downhill again. And yous are tired, wearied really, and the adrenaline subsides, and you experience down and browbeaten.

Attempts at levity vicious on apartment ears, somewhen we gathered in a modest office to keep warm, in silence, waiting for word of the rescue.

The phone rang, and nosotros were told nosotros had to wait until morning. It was by at present pitch-blackness outside.

I began to doze on a couch, and I remember vaguely seeing a flashing light, then the sound of heavy boots and shouting in the stairwell.

Richie said he was convinced information technology was the finish, before he heard these beautiful words: "Ukrainian police force, come up quickly!"

We filed out and were stuffed into a police vehicle, the driver gunned his engine, and we skidded through the gates of the factory unit of measurement.

At that place was a long way to become, but we had been rescued. A day later on, we made it dorsum to the centre of Kyiv.

The indicate is nosotros were very lucky. Merely thousands of Ukrainians are dying, and families are being targeted by Russian hit squads simply as nosotros were, driving along in a family saloon and attacked.

This war gets worse by the twenty-four hour period.

Read more eyewitness reports from Stuart Ramsay in Ukraine

• Everyone's a potential Russian agent as Putin's forces approach Kyiv
• A long and terrifying weekend defending of Kyiv
• Come across the 21-year-onetime guarding a footbridge alone in Kyiv

Stuart and his team are now safely back in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland.