Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall shares harrowing account of near-death from Russian attack in Ukraine

March 21, 2023

Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was nearly killed by a Russian artillery barrage in March 2022 while covering the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine, and now he is finally telling his harrowing story of near-death and survival, the Daily Wire reported.

Hall suffered grievous injuries in the attack that killed two members of his team -- fellow Fox News photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski as well as local Ukrainian reporter Oleksandra "Sasha" Kuvshynova.

The war correspondent has undergone nearly 30 surgeries since that near-fatal incident but completely lost an entire leg and his other foot along with the use of one of his hands and one of his eyes.

The artillery attack

Fox News reported that its streaming service Fox Nation is airing a special extended episode of its series "Sacrifice and Survival: A Story from the Front Line" that is focused on what happened to Hall when he and his team were caught amid a Russian artillery barrage on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

"We thought we were going five minutes around the corner to film these abandoned villages," Hall recalled of the lead-up to his near-death experience. "There was a bombed-out gas station … we went a little bit further, interviewed some Ukrainian soldiers who were there, we were filming outside one building that had been hit badly, we heard shelling in the background."

"We quickly finished up what we were doing and we got out, the decision then was just to go back," he continued. "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."

"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 said. "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."

Saved by the voice of his daughter in his head

His envisioned daughter's voice urged him to get out of the damaged vehicle, which proved quite fortuitous, as it was hit directly by an artillery shell almost immediately after Hall had pulled himself clear of it.

"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," Hall recalled. "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.'"

"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," he added.

Life goes on

The Fox Nation special also featured Hall's wife, Alicia Meller, who said, "Him coming home, in a way, feels like nothing has changed even though everything has changed," and added, "Credit to him, credit to the kids, they took it in their stride. They’re not bothered by anything, they’re so proud of daddy’s robot leg. It’s just a different way of life."

Separately, Hall also shared in an interview with Deadline some of the details of the attack, his rescue and extraction to Poland and then Germany by a nonprofit volunteer group known as Save Our Allies, his recovery from the severe trauma he endured, and his drive to continue asking questions and learning more information to share with others.

Of particular note in that interview was his recollection of hearing and seeing his daughter urging him to exit the vehicle in the immediate aftermath of the blast, and how he has found similar accounts from others who survived near-death experiences. Hall told the outlet, "Whether that was my daughter or whether that was an angel, someone came and got me out."

An even more fulsome account of everything that happened can be found in Hall's new book, "Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home," which was released on March 14, the one-year anniversary of the attack that almost claimed his life.

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