Injured Danish journalists evacuated from Ukraine after being shot near the Russian border

Two Danish journalists who sustained gunshot wounds in Ukraine at the weekend have left the country and are on their way home, their employer and Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.

Reporter Stefan Weichert and photographer Emil Filtenborg Mikkelsen were shot while reporting for Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet near the north-eastern town of Okhtyrka, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the Russian border.

Ekstra Bladet said Wednesday that its two freelancers were "in a safe country" and would "soon be safe at home in Denmark".

"The Danish journalists who were seriously injured in Ukraine have been evacuated to Moldova," Jeanne Cavelier, head of Eastern Europe and Central Asia for Reporters Without Borders, told AFP.

The two journalists, who had been living in Ukraine for a few years, were injured on Saturday when their car was shot at by unidentified assailants, despite wearing bulletproof vests.