Watch: Terrifying moment Russian airstrike explodes in huge fireball behind TV reporter broadcasting live

3 January 2023, 22:04

Terrifying footage shows a Russian airstrike explode just behind a TV reporter as they broadcast live.

The French journalist was reporting from Kramatorsk – not far from the frontline in the Donetsk region – when the attack took place.

Paul Gasnier ducks as a massive fireball erupts behind him, sending him scrambling away to get to safety before the broadcast cuts back to the show on the TMC Network.

Mr Gasnier is understood to have escaped the attack without serious injury but some reports said he had suffered minor injuries from shrapnel.

It's been claimed Russia hit a hockey arena in the city.

Russia has been bombarding Ukraine with missile and kamikaze drones to try and sap Ukrainian morale and terrorise its population.

Read more: Russia suffers heavy losses trying to take Ukrainian 'fortress' town of Bakhmut as offensive slows

It has resorted to a war of attrition because it been on the defensive for months – losing swaths of territory to Ukrainian counterattacks and resorting to calling up 300,000 men to try and hold what they have left.

Many of the attacks have been launched against energy infrastructure in an apparent bid to plunge their foes into freezing temperatures.

But with Nato supplying advanced kit to bolster Kyiv's defences, Russia has been battered in zones it occupies too.

Russia suffered what's thought to be its most brutal day yet, after Ukraine fired a salvo of missiles at a military site in the east of the country which Kyiv claimed led to 400 deaths.

The claims cannot be verified but Moscow did admit it had suffered a number of casualties in the strike.

It is thought the troops were some of the hundreds of thousands called up by Putin.

The attack appeared to be timed with Putin delivering his New Year's speech.