Massimo Belluzzo: “In Kiev to tell a war”

“I found myself on the street, with nowhere to go, with my equipment, in the pouring rain in a deserted Kiev. We will have covered five kilometers on foot, under fire. We didn’t have to go to the front, but the front came to us ». Telling a war in images. Choosing to leave and to put your own safety at risk in order to keep faith with the meaning of your work: to inform and document. Massimo Belluzzo, 51 years old, cameraman and documentary maker with extreme missions in Patagonia and the Andes under his belt, he left for Ukraine on 23 February.

He should have documented the pulse of the capital in hectic days. Instead he found himself filming a war from a bunkerwith basic meals, chairs to work and sleep on, days marked by sirens and bombings, fear of snipers, while the circle around the capital tightens.

“It was amazing. We arrived in a European capital with open restaurants and people on the street and at 3 am the bombs woke us up. In a few hours the capital has turned into a city under siege ». Massimo Belluzzo together with the journalist Maria Grazia Fiorani makes up the only television crew Rai in Kiev.

«We left on Wednesday: the agreement was to cover Kiev and look for stories in the capital. We were all convinced that the war would remain confined to the Donbass and the borders. Instead the first night at 3 the bombings began. Dramatic situation. Everyone in Ukraine would scream out of their rooms, retrieve suitcases and personal effects, run and start broadcasting. A few hours later we went out onto the street, into the squares. At 5 pm some colleagues warned us that the staff had fled. Ukraine is not far from the Presidential Palace, considered a sensitive target. We took all our things and moved with some colleagues to another hotel about a kilometer away. It was raining, you couldn’t see a taxi or a car. We carried everything in our arms, “he says.