British photojournalist hit by Russian-backed shelling in Ukraine: 'I am alive'

Christopher Nunn’s translator tells The Independent that early reports of 33-year-old losing an eye were ‘fake news’

Christopher Nunn’s fixer said he was likely to stay resting in hospital for another week (Christopher Nunn/Twitter)

It took just three simple words on Twitter for Christopher Nunn to tell the world he was safe: “I am alive”.

But it said nothing about the photojournalist’s traumatic past 24 hours as he was caught up in sudden fighting between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists.

The 33-year-old Briton was photographing from a house in the frontline town of Avdiivka on Thursday when a shell exploded immediately outside.

Initial media reports out of Ukraine claimed shrapnel penetrated his left eye, and wounded his right eyelid, and that doctors were fighting to save his vision.

But speaking to The Independent from hospital, his translator and fixer Vladimir Subotovsky said it was “fake news” and that there was no threat of losing his vision.

“One woman said ‘you can visit me’ to take pictures of the neighbourhood,” said the 25-year-old Ukrainian, speaking from Mechnikov hospital in the more central Dnipro city.

“We were in the kitchen when shelling started exploding in the neighbourhood. I was going to another room but he stayed in the kitchen and the shell exploded nearby and it blasted the window.

“There was broken glass and plastic hit his face.

“He has a little problem with his left eye. I read in the news that he lost his left eye but it’s not true, it’s fake news.

“He had a little operation on the left eye and an injection and he is now asleep.

Ukrainian servicemen distribute hot food and tea to local citizens in Avdiivka (EPA)

“It was small pieces from the window – a few small bits of plastic that have been removed.”

Mr Subotovsky said the shelling came from Donetsk nine miles south, which unlike Avdiivka, is an anti-government Kremlin-backed stronghold.

“We have no idea why they were shelling the town,” he added.

Mr Subotovsky also said the woman in the house was badly injured in last night’s fighting, which reportedly killed two civilians in government-held territory, and two civilians in Donetsk.

He said Mr Nunn, who is expected to stay in hospital for another week, has already been visited by his Ukrainian girlfriend and spoken to his dad via Whatsapp.

The Bradford University photography graduate, from Huddersfield, who is believed to have moved to the Donbass area in winter 2014 before war started, has been honoured at a series of UK galleries and exhibitions.

Recent clients, according to his website, include The New Yorker, the Financial Times' Weekend Magazine, Le Monde, Morgenbladet and The Daily Telegraph.

The ceasefire violations on Thursday killed about 15 people including soldiers, the worst fighting in weeks, and more than 9,700 have died in the three-year conflict.