CNN’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, paused on air during Saturday’s report to help the elderly in Ukraine, even helping carry their belongings for a few minutes.
“These people have been under fire for seven days in a row and have just left their homes, and they leave them reluctantly. And they leave them with the knowledge that they may not be able to return to them. And you can see that a lot of these people are older,” Ward said. said before she began talking to civilians in Kyiv, helping some navigate the unstable ground as they walked.
During another part of the broadcast, she stopped again to help a woman carry her bag.
“I’ll just help her carry that bag for a second, excuse me John,” she told CNN’s John Berman as she moved a few feet away from the camera to help move the bag.
She returned it to the old woman and consoled her. Less than a minute later, the journalist returned to the camera to pick up where she left off.
“So people are obviously incredibly affected by this situation. They are scared. They are exhausted. They are on the edge. They have their own pets. They took everything they could,” she said.
Last year, Ward garnered widespread attention for her reporting on Afghanistan against the backdrop of the Biden administration’s chaotic evacuation of US troops from the country.
During the Taliban takeover, she reported on the streets around the airport in Kabul, asking questions to members of the rebel group.
“Honestly, it’s been a pretty mind-blowing journey,” Ward told The Hill in an exclusive interview in August. “Of course it felt like we were in the front row of history and this is an extraordinary moment to witness.”
The CNN correspondent has previously also reported on the Syrian city of Aleppo in Iraq and Beirut in Lebanon.