2 AP journalists documenting the siege of Mariupol say they were on a Russian hit list

• Two AP journalists documenting the siege of Mariupol said they were on a Russian hit list.
• Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniy Maloletka were the last two international journalists in the city.

Two Associated Press journalists documenting Russia's ongoing siege against Ukraine's southern port city of Mariupol said on Monday they were on a Russian hit list before fleeing.

"The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in," AP videographer Mstyslav Chernov said in a first-person account of his experience covering the war with photographer Evgeniy Maloletka.

Chernov and Maloletka were the last two international journalists in Mariupol, which has been bombarded by Russian forces since they invaded in late February. Scores of people have been left dead, injured, or missing.

Among the targets of Russian shelling have been a maternity hospital, a theater where children were sheltering, a mosque, and an art school.

Chernov said during his time reporting in Mariupol he had witnessed mass graves, bodies in the streets, and people dying at hospitals.

"I had seen so much death that I was filming almost without taking it in," he said.

While reporting inside of a hospital last week, Chernov said Ukrainian soldiers burst into the scene and said they were ordered to help the journalists escape.

After a harrowing escape from the hospital and through intense Russian shelling in the streets of Mariupol, Chernov said he was brought to a momentary safe spot and told by a policeman why the Ukrainian soldiers had been sent to evacuate the journalists.

"If they catch you, they will get you on camera and they will make you say that everything you filmed is a lie," the policeman told the journalists, according to Chernov. "All your efforts and everything you have done in Mariupol will be in vain."

Eventually, Chernov said he was "crammed" in a car with a family of three. The car was part of a long convoy of Ukrainians attempting to flee Mariupol, and it crossed 15 Russian checkpoints to evacuate the city before reaching safety.

"We were the last journalists in Mariupol," he said. "Now there are none."

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.