‘IT WAS TERRIFYING’
UKRAINE’S DEVASTATION WAS LIKE NOTHING HE HAD SEEN BEFORE
Chris Reason had a front-row seat at Princess Diana’s funeral, the September 11 attacks in New York, and the Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnian and Israel-hezbollah wars. Even so, what 7NEWS’ chief reporter witnessed in Ukraine has left him shocked and horrified.
Remembering the month he spent in the war zone, Chris paints a terrifying picture as he tells New Idea: “Missiles screaming through the air, tanks rolling on the ground, troops going house to house … To hear that rattle of gunfire, to see the explosions all night long …”
Father-of-two Chris arrived at the Polish-ukraine border the day war broke out. He was met by a “tsunami” of tens of thousands of “terrified, panicking” Ukrainian parents fleeing their homes in cars and on foot as neighbouring Russia invaded.
“I couldn’t believe it. It was kind of like if Australia had attacked New Zealand,” he says.
But there was far worse to come for Chris, 56, his Perth-based cameraman Simon Hydzik, their Ukrainian-born fixer Anzor Domuzashvili, a Norwegian ex-military security officer, and their Ukrainian driver – who doubled up as a medic.
“It was the uncertainty of never knowing where the next missile was going to fall,” he says, explaining that one day he was threatened by a Ukrainian sniper before surviving three near misses with Russian cruise missiles.
“We started filming the tank shells and the destroyed vehicles, and then all of a sudden we heard this extraordinary sound, a sound I’d never heard – this tearing sound. A Russian cruise missile went straight over our heads.
“Seconds later two more crossed, and then seconds after that they hit their targets and we heard the explosion and saw the flash.”
Chris felt they were relatively safe in a log cabin they rented in the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, sharing the same room for safety and surviving on a diet of eggs, frozen meat and beer – until it wasn’t.
One morning, he was woken up at 4am in pitch black with their security officer covering Chris’ mouth. He whispered that there was gunfire outside their cabin, and to put a flak jacket on and be ready to flee.
“I’m no hero … We very much took a low-risk approach to our coverage,” Chris insists.
The devoted family man rang home daily to reassure his wife, ABC news presenter Kathryn Robinson, and 14-year-old twins Sam and Lucy – who came along after he twice beat testicular cancer.
“They know that I do what I do and that I’ve been in sticky situations in the past,” Chris says. “I’m proud of how they deal with it.
They don’t complain or demand I come home.
“And we stayed in areas where we always felt we had an escape route. We always had 800km worth of fuel in the back of the car in jerry cans.
“We had enough food and water to survive for three days if we felt the Russians were starting to close in. We all carried our bags with essential gear and passports if we had to drop everything and run.”
He says social media helped the team pinpoint where the bombs were dropping and how to avoid the horde of invading Russians, who Chris says
‘A RUSSIAN CRUISE MISSILE WENT STRAIGHT OVER OUR HEADS’
were clearly targeting civilians.
“The world needed to see all the atrocities. Yes, there was awful, heartbreaking tragedy and harrowing scenes we witnessed, but I have to say I walked away more impacted by the hope and positive stuff I saw in Ukraine.”