Vice’s Simon Ostrovsky is not backing down following his agonizing three-day imprisonment in Ukraine, telling “Today” host Savannah Guthrie he wants to go back.
Ostrovsky was captured at a checkpoint by pro-Russian militants in Slaviansk and beaten.
He told Guthrie on Monday that despite his excruciating detainment, he vowed to return to the Ukraine and again cover the conflict.
“They blindfolded me, tied my hands behind my back, took me down into the cellar, threw me on the floor,” Ostrovsky explained. “Two or three guys, I think, were beating me. I realized they weren’t trying to hit me in the face and they weren’t trying to leave any lasting marks so that was encouraging for me.”
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“I think the reason they took me was because they wanted to stop me reporting, so I’d really like to go back to Ukraine and continue sending stories from there, because that’s what it’s all about,” Ostrovsky pledged.
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“I just thought to myself, ‘I could probably take a beating.’ I don’t think they want to kill me, I think they just want to put a scare in me — and it was really scary,” he said.
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