Fox correspondent Benjamin Hall has left Ukraine after suffering injuries from deadly attack
By Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy, CNN Business
Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was severely injured while reporting outside Kyiv on Monday, has been evacuated from the country, Fox said.
“Ben is alert and in good spirits,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said Wednesday in a memo to staffers. “He is being treated with the best possible care in the world and we are in close contact with his wife and family. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.”
Fox anchors Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum relayed the news on air Wednesday morning. “We hope for more good news to come in the days ahead,” MacCallum said.
“Been a couple of heavy days around here,” Hemmer added, “so that is a dose of good news for Ben.”
Fox News has been grieving this week after losing journalists in the field for the first time in the network’s 25 year history.
The two crew members who were with Hall on Monday, photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and consultant Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24, were killed when their vehicle came under fire.
Hall, 39, was injured and rushed to a hospital. Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova were initially thought to be missing until officials in Ukraine confirmed they were dead. The officials blamed artillery shelling by Russian forces. “The truth is the target,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said.
“The loss and pain we feel is enormous,” Fox’s national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin said on the air Tuesday evening. “But if ever there were a time that the world needed journalists, reporters, risking their lives to tell these stories, to tell the truth, it’s now. Without a free press, the autocrats win. We will redouble our efforts to honor these colleagues,” she said, choking back tears, “and all reporters in harm’s way tonight.”
Behind the scenes, Fox executives were working to move Hall out of the war zone for additional medical care.
Hall, an experienced war correspondent previously based in London, became the network’s State Department correspondent in Washington last November. He traveled to Ukraine in February to cover Russia’s invasion.
His injuries and his crew’s deaths underscore the dangers faced by members of the media across Ukraine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that he was “very saddened” to learn about the deaths of Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova.
“I am grateful to all those risking their lives to show the world what is happening in Ukraine,” Blinken said. “The United States condemns Russia’s ongoing violence, which is putting the safety of journalists and other media workers in Ukraine at risk.”
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