Where are Clive Myrie and Lyse Doucet now? Are BBC News journalists still in Ukraine - or have they left?
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BBC broadcaster Clive Myrie has been regularly updating viewers on the Russian invasion of Ukraine alongside the broadcaster’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet.
The two journalists have kept millions informed in recent weeks, bringing harrowing accounts of the events unfolding across the war-torn nation.
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Hide AdConcerns about their and other reporters’ safety escalated when a Sky News journalist was shot in the back as his crew came under attack on Monday 28 February.
Myrie, 57, has now left Ukraine, expressing his empathy on Twitter for those fleeing the conflict.
Where are Myrie and Doucet now?
Clive Myrie has now left Ukraine and revealed on Sunday 6 March that he had crossed the border into Moldova before driving across the country to reach Romania.
He documented his journey in a series of tweets, beginning with a picture of his BBC colleague, Ian Jonas, crossing a bridge from Ukraine into Moldova.
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Hide AdThe presenter revealed he had been waiting in the queue for eight hours before approaching the Romanian border.
Lyse Doucet, 63, an experienced war reporter who has also covered conflicts in Afghanistan and Syria as well as the Arab Spring uprising, has not disclosed her latest location.
Myrie shared photos of the pair together in different war zones, 21 years apart, adding: “I’m proud [to] know you young lady”.
What has Clive Myrie said?
He wrote on Twitter: “After 17 or so hours drive in all from Kyiv, heading south then west, then into Moldova to the frontier, we arrive at the queue to cross from Moldova to Romania.
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Hide Ad“This was to become a long night. We are less than 2miles from the crossing…”
In another tweet, he said: “A full 8hours later, we travel the less than 2miles to cross into Romania with the leaflet saying ‘if you are Ukrainian you have the right to enter Romania and you will be protected!’”
“It was a long, day of driving and queuing to get out of Kyiv. Imagine having to leave all you know in a hurry because you’re being shelled.”
He tweeted: “What do you pack? Do pets come too? It’s freezing cold and you pray those in neighbouring countries will welcome you, not despise you!
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Hide Ad“My thoughts are with the 1million who’ve fled #Ukraine because they might be killed. The millions who fled #syria and many other millions escaping repression, poverty, war.
“They all pray they’ll be welcomed in other countries as human beings. That’s all they ask.”
Why are journalists leaving Ukraine?
The danger they face was brought into sharp focus last week when Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay was hit by a bullet in his lower back after their car came under fire.
Two bullets also hit the camera operator in his body armour before the crew managed to escape.
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Hide AdOn Saturday 5 March the Prime Minister tweeted: “The courage of these journalists, putting themselves in terrifying and dangerous situations, is astonishing to watch. They’re risking their lives to ensure that the truth is told.”
The Sky News crew is now back in the UK while the local producer who was with them is back with his family in Ukraine.
Sky News presenter Mark Austin revealed last week that he and his team had left Kyiv for a “more secure location in Ukraine”.
A spokesman for the BBC said: “The safety of our teams working and reporting from Ukraine is our top priority and we have a range of measures in place to support staff as well as highly skilled teams working to assess and mitigate any risks.”
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Hide AdCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries paid tribute to the journalists in Ukraine who are risking their lives to cover the Russian invasion.
Dorries gave a tearful speech in the House of Commons last week.
She told MPs the audience for the BBC’s Russian language news website has “gone up from 3.1 million to 10.7 million in the last week”, adding: “Despite his best efforts to censor reporting in Russia, Putin’s own citizens are turning to factual, independent information in their millions.
She added: “At this point I’d just like to offer my heartfelt thanks and admiration to all of those journalists working for the BBC, the ITV and other news outlets who are risking their lives to bring us unbiased and accurate news from a live warzone.”
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