CNN witnesses Russia firing rockets toward Ukraine live on air

Amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, CNN on Thursday aired live footage of its reporter on the ground witnessing artillery rockets being fired toward the country.

After Russia launched an attack against Ukraine late Wednesday, CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen was reporting on the ground from Russia's Belgorod Region when he noted that "you can see more artillery rockets apparently being fired from Russian territory toward" Ukraine, which was captured live on the air.

"So that's another salvo of what we believe is multiple artillery rocket launchers that have been going off here," Pleitgen said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In another stunning clip, CNN reporter Matthew Chance was reporting near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, showing footage of Russian forces who have taken over the Antonov Airport. The CNN international correspondent said he spoke with the commander of the Russian forces on the ground, who told him that "they are now in control of this airport," and Chance said that just moments before he went on the air, "they were engaged in a firefight, presumably with the Ukrainian military, which says it is staging a counteroffensive to try to take back this airport."

Chance also noted that he didn't initially realize these forces weren't Ukranian until he began speaking with them.

"It only emerged during the conversation that they're all Russians, and there are no Ukrainian military forces in sight," he said. "Although I can hear them because they've been shooting ferociously in the past few minutes."