A British television crew was ambushed outside Kyiv earlier this week, leaving one journalist wounded, their employer Sky News said.

Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent at Sky News, was hit by a bullet in the lower back on Monday as they drove towards the Ukrainian capital.

Sky News showed footage of the attack late Friday.

Two bullets hit a camera operator's body armour. The five-person crew escaped their car and waslater rescued by Ukranian police.

A Russian saboteur reconnaissance squad is suspected of carrying out the attack, Sky News said.

"Bullets cascaded through the whole of the car, tracers, bullet flashes, windscreen glass, plastic seats, the steering wheel, and dashboard had disintegrated," Ramsay said in a written account.

The news crew is now safe and back in the UK, while their Ukrainian producer is with his family in Ukraine.

"The point is we were very lucky," Ramsay said.

"But thousands of Ukrainians are dying, and families are being targeted by Russian hit squads just as we were, driving along in a family saloon and attacked."