Reporter narrowly escapes Ukraine bombing attack targeting Donetsk pro-Russian separatists

CGTN correspondent, Dmitriy Maslak, known for offering deep coverage from the most dangerous areas of the Ukrainian Russian front line experienced a lucky near miss on the battlefield.

Reporting from the frontline in Donetsk where pro-Russian militia forces were fighting against the Ukrainian army and turned out to take a narrow escape from a bombing attack that took place only ten meters away from them.

He and his team were located some five kilometres away from downtown Donetsk city, where multiple buildings were seriously damaged by bombings.

To offer live coverage of the ongoing conflict with first-hand perspective, Maslak embedded with a mortar team of the Donetsk militia forces who have been firing mortars for 24 hours straight in response to the attacks against residential areas in the city over the recent days.

"The coordinate for shooting has been confirmed. The mortar crew is about to take action against the designated target," said the CGTN correspondent.

Infantry soldiers were able to move forward following the firing of heavy artillery and destroyed some mortars of the enemy under the cover of assault forces.

Each mortar attack could involve a volley of shells because the enemy was found knowing well about the bombings as well as attacking back, according to the militia, saying that they would fire nearly up to 400 shells every day and night.

Once the position gets spotted by the enemy, they will hit back right away so it's crucial for the soldiers to find a bunker as soon as they can, before plotting another around of actions as retaliation.

"Hurry up. Move. Get to the bunker now," a soldier shouted.

"We take actions based on to the artillery observers' intelligence. They will issue us warnings like the enemy has entered our position and began artillery attacks against us. There was one time when a large number of shells hit the ground that is only 20 to 30 meters away from us. There might be 10 to 20 shells heading to our position each day," a soldier told CGTN when responding to why they decided it was time to get into the bunker.

As the CGTN reporting crew were about to leave the area since the field had already been exposed, the mortar team said they will stay to continue with the fight on a new battleground.