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SPIEGEL reporter Christoph Reuter at the destroyed bridge leading to the Ukrainian city of Irpin
Photo: Johanna-Maria Fritz and Mila Teshaieva / DER SPIEGEL
"You realize how close the war is to us when you say: OK, I'll get in the car and drive to the front."
Christoph Reuter has reported for SPIEGEL from many conflicts around the world: from Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iraq.
From the Polish border he traveled to the Ukrainian capital in an old VW Golf, meanwhile as part of a convoy escorted by Ukrainian security forces.
'It was a coach and two small vans.
Then I looked to see what was actually on this coach?” he says.
»And then there were nothing but boxes that said: helmet, ALG, dot, Bundeswehr, central administration.
And then we realized: We are accompanying the Bundeswehr helmets to Kyiv.«
In this episode of the foreign podcast "Eight Billions", Christoph Reuter talks about his first two weeks as a reporter in Putin's war, about the difficulties and dangers of this special form of war journalism and the essential preparations for such a job.
For example, it's about him wearing his body armor under his clothes so as not to be mistaken for a fighter, or the need to know the past experiences of defenders.
»To be clarified with the people: which small alley is in the field of vision and therefore in the firing angle of snipers?
Have the Russians used any snipers at all?
How did you react when pedestrians passed?
How did they react to cars?” he reports.
“These little things, but they can be essential for survival, as you've noticed.
Simply because three colleagues lost their lives in and around Irpin within a week.«
Listen to this episode of »Eight Billion« here: