Watch the terrifying moment Russian artillery fires on Daily Mail reporters in Ukraine – as they get extraordinary access to front line trenches for exclusive video report
Terrifying video shows Daily Mail reporters Richard Pendlebury and Jamie Wiseman coming under Russian artillery and mortar fire as they get extraordinary access to a Ukrainian frontline trench.
Their full dramatic dispatch from the eastern frontline is available to watch on the Daily Mail’s YouTube channel .
The video report will be followed by Richard’s gripping written account of their experience in tomorrow’s newspaper, on MailOnline and Mail+.
The British journalists have been given unprecedented and exclusive access to the frontline in this devastating 21st century battle to force Russia’s invaders from Ukraine.
In one extraordinary moment Richard and Jamie sprint across a field and through trees as mortars crash down around them.
‘We have not gone far beyond the lane when we hear the unmistakable whine of an approaching shell and I am on my hands and knees in the mud as it explodes a stone throw’s away to our left’, Richard writes.
Most foreign reporters are kept far from the frontline in fighting in Ukraine, but Jamie and Richard managed to get extraordinary access to a frontline trench in the Donbas region.
Watch a preview here and the full video on our YouTube channel.
Richard Pendlebury is thrown to the floor as Russian mortars crash down around them after they leave their trench
Ukrainian Special Forces urge the Mail journalists onwards as they come under enemy fire
The terrifying race in a 4×4 with a cracked windscreen to flee the Russians across a field in full view of enemy position
Richard Pendlebury shows what life is like in narrow trenches for Ukrainian troops, sometimes only a few hundred yards from the enemy
Richard and guide Oleh have a cup of tea sat in their handmade wooden bunks in conditions reminiscent of the First World War
The pair had to evade a Russian drone as they entered Ukrainian position before dawn, and witnessed Ukrainian troops fighting Russians just 400metres away across no man’s land.
As they leave the trench they are forced to take cover from Russian artilley as they cross open ground.
Richard and Jamie show the grim reality of the battle for the Dombas region, where Ukrainian soldiers are fighting from narrow trenches and sleeping in beds made from trees in conditions reminiscent of the First World War.
They also experience the mortal danger of leaving their trench as Russian troops fire mortars at the Mail journalists and their guide Oleh, who repeatedly warns them to stay silent to avoid being heard by enemy drones.
Describing life in the trenches, Richard writes: ‘We step down from 21st Century warfare into what resembles a scene from the Western Front, circa 1916. When first light arrives and hostilities resume in thunderous earnest, we will find that sheltering in, or, even more so, leaving the trench in daylight, is far more dangerous than this very discomforting arrival’.
Later in ‘treacherous daylight’, they are forced to drive at top speed in a 4×4 after getting to close to the Russians before dawn.
Richard writes: ‘In the darkness Oleh had driven too far – beyond the field that we were supposed to cross on foot last night. Now we must drive back across the same field in broad daylight, under the eyes of the Russians. Oleh drives like a madman. Mortar bombs are now landing close enough to hear them above the screaming of the engine. We buck and crab down the hill that had defeated us in the rain. Luck is with us. We make the hedged lane intact and now even crossing the dangerous bridge feels like reaching safety’.
