Fox News war correspondent Benjamin Hall detailed the events leading up to his brush with death in Ukraine while covering the early days of Russia’s invasion of the country.
In the extended versions of Fox Nation’s “Sacrifice and Survival: A Story From the Front Line,” the Fox News reporter talked about the day he and others on his team were hit by incoming fire on the outskirts of Kyiv, on March 14, 2022.
Hall said they had been filming in an abandoned area of the town when they heard shelling in the background. The team decided they were safe to proceed because it was far away — and just minutes later, they were hit by a deadly attack which killed, Fox News photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova.
“We came up to a checkpoint, there was nobody at the checkpoint, just three concrete barriers … just as we approached the first barrier, the first shell landed,” Hall recounted.
“About 30 yards in front of us, big explosion, Pierre immediately shouts very quickly, ‘reverse, reverse get backwards,’ the Ukrainians who were driving couldn’t get into reverse, and then out of nowhere the second [shell] landed,” he added. “I went black at the point. I say black, it was like a death. I mean, I wasn’t just concussed, I was out. And out of nowhere, I just hear my daughter’s voice.”
A year after Benjamin Hall was severely injured when his crew vehicle was struck by incoming fire in Ukraine, the Fox News correspondent has published a book, 'Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission to Make It Home,' due to be released Tuesday https://t.co/GgyrRz7jSU
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 13, 2023
Hall said he then saw an image of his daughter urging him to get out of the car. So he did, and that’s when another shell struck the vehicle.
“I was out for a little bit and I wake up, first thing, I knew I was in trouble, and I was on fire and I had to stop that,” the reporter explained. “I’m rolling around, I’m hitting my legs, trying to get it out and I’m looking at myself and I’m bleeding from the head.”
“My leg is off, it’s dangling off, below the knee, the first thing I hear is Pierre say, ‘Don’t move, don’t move – Russian drones,'” he added. “I sat there for a while, tried my phone, there is no cell phone reception, so I’m just sitting there, complete bloody wreck, didn’t think I was going to die, didn’t think I would get stuck, I didn’t even feel that the injuries were too bad. I knew they were terrible, and the leg was gone, but I knew I was going home.”
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He’s since gone through close to 30 surgeries, lost a foot, a leg, and no longer has use of one of his hands and one eye. The reporter credits his wife, Alicia Meller, and their three young daughters for giving him the strength to keep moving forward.
“Credit to him, credit to the kids, they took it in their stride,” Meller said in the clip. “They’re not bothered by anything, they’re so proud of daddy’s robot leg. It’s just a different way of life.”
While the Fox Nation story goes into part of what Hall went through, he’s shared the full story in his new book “Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission to Make It Home,” which hit shelves on March 14.