Fox News star wounded in Ukraine now accused of ignoring urgent warnings before strike killed two colleagues… as slain producer's parents seek massive payout

Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall has been accused of ignoring urgent security warnings before venturing into a deadly Ukrainian danger zone where a Russian strike killed two of his colleagues and left him horrifically wounded.The allegations are at the center of a multimillion-dollar legal battle brought by the parents of 24-year-old Ukrainian producer Oleksandra 'Sasha' Kuvshynova, who died alongside veteran Fox cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski in March 2022.Two high-risk security advisers who were working for Fox in Ukraine have also backed key elements of the grieving family's claims, telling NPR that the network and its star correspondent were repeatedly warned to stay away from the dangerous area outside Kyiv.'If you took Benji out of the equation, this never would have happened,' former Fox security adviser Aaron King told NPR.Fox fiercely disputes the allegations and has said it will 'respectfully defend against the inaccurate claims within this lawsuit.'The network maintains that 'the safety of our journalists has always been our number one priority.'Hall, meanwhile, has previously described how he believed the crew was heading somewhere far safer than it ultimately proved to be.The British-American correspondent almost died in the March 14, 2022 attack, losing his right leg below the knee, most of his left foot and part of an eye. iFox News correspondent Benjamin Hall lost his right leg below the knee, most of his left foot and part of his sight after surviving the deadly Russian strike outside Kyiv in March 2022 Ukrainian producer Oleksandra ‘Sasha’ Kuvshynova, 24, was killed in the strike while working with the Fox News team during Russia’s invasion Veteran cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski was also killed in the blast when the vehicle he was travelling in with hall and Kuvshynova was struckBut Kuvshynova, Zakrzewski and two Ukrainian soldiers traveling with the journalists were all killed.The fateful journey came amid increasingly stark warnings about the perilous territory northwest of Kyiv as Russian troops pushed through the region.The previous day, American filmmaker Brent Renaud had been shot dead in Irpin and the city's mayor publicly warned journalists to stay away.Security adviser Shane Thomson, who has joined Kuvshynova's parents in their lawsuit, said there was no ambiguity about the danger.'There was no way we were going there,' he told NPR. 'No way. Not after the credible intel, what we had and everything what we had before. It was all on point. There's nothing, no gray areas.'The message during a Fox security meeting on the evening before the deadly trip was allegedly similarly blunt: crews were to remain within Kyiv's city limits.Hall, Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova set out the next morning intending to film defensive trenches being constructed inside the capital.Hall himself has insisted that their 'explicit intention was to avoid the front lines, stay clear of active fighting, remain within the city's borders.' Benjamin Hall, Oleksandra ‘Sasha’ Kuvshynova and veteran cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski are pictured together in Ukraine before the deadly strike that killed Kuvshynova and Zakrzewski Pierre Zakrzewski, right, and Oleksandra Kuvshynova, centre. were killed in Ukraine while they were traveling in a vehicle Oleksandra Kuvshynova is seen on the streets of Ukraine covering the war. Cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski can be seen to her right An Orthodox priest prays over a coffin of Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24, in St. Michael Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 20, 2022 Kuvshynova’s parents, Andriy Kuvshynov and Iryna Mamaysur, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Fox News and Hall, alleging their daughter’s death was preventable and that repeated security warnings were ignoredBut when Ukrainian troops refused to let them film at the trenches, the plan changed.Two Ukrainian soldiers accompanying them suggested traveling to Horenka, a nearby suburb that had been devastated by Russian forces.Hall later wrote that the crew understood Russian troops to be at least 30 miles away.Fox's attorneys have acknowledged in a court filing that Hall believed the location was safer than it really was and that he and the Ukrainian soldiers were wrong.The family's lawyers go much further and argue that Hall's account was 'patently and knowingly false.'Their lawsuit also claims the crew's security adviser gave Hall specific instructions not to travel anywhere that had not undergone a proper security assessment or venture beyond the checkpoint inside Kyiv where they had originally intended to film.Hall's team nevertheless traveled beyond the checkpoint and city limits, according to NPR.As they returned toward Kyiv after filming scenes of destruction, disaster struck.'The first missile came out of nowhere, lands about 30 feet in front of us,' Hall later recalled in an interview with Sean Hannity.He said Zakrzewski screamed: "Reverse the car! Reverse the car!" The vehicle became stuck. Hall shared harrowing images from his hospital bed after surviving the Russian strike, which left him with devastating injuries to his legs, eye and body Hall smiled through a majority of the photos as he made progress in his recovery. He is seen above receiving treatment in his working leg'Pierre shouted, 'Get out of the car! Everyone, get out of the car!' And the next second, the second bomb hits right in front of the left of the car. And that one, I went black.'Zakrzewski managed to escape the vehicle but suffered a devastating leg wound and bled to death beside the road, according to his widow's lawsuit.Kuvshynova and the two Ukrainian soldiers never managed to escape the vehicle.Hall was eventually found alive and was evacuated from Ukraine before receiving extensive medical treatment.Kuvshynova's devastated parents say they were left largely in the dark about their daughter's fate.They claim nobody from Fox contacted them on the day of the attack and that it was Kuvshynova's boyfriend, Ukrainian lawmaker Sviatoslav Yurash, who ultimately told them she had been killed.Her father later retraced the crew's route and said a Ukrainian commander told him that Hall had been warned not to continue beyond the checkpoint but had done so anyway.The family was told 48 hours after the strike that Kuvshynova's remains were in a morgue. Her father said her body was so badly burned they initially identified her from her clothes, with DNA testing later confirming her death.Days later, Fox offered the family payment covering wages and benefits, funeral expenses and an additional sum approximating life-insurance proceeds. During his time in recovery, Hall wrote a book about his experiences Hall was seen in a wheelchair making his way around the grocery store with a smile on his face Hall is pictured at home with one of his young daughters as she sketched her father in April' 21Fox says the payment exceeded what it was contractually required to provide and was offered 'as a show of sympathy and goodwill.'The network argues a document subsequently signed by Kuvshynova's father released it from legal responsibility, calling the agreement 'the beginning and the end of the case.'But the family argues they did not understand what they were signing amid the chaos of Russia's invasion and the unimaginable grief of losing their daughter.'I did not know the extent Fox was at fault,' Kuvshynova's father said in a sworn affidavit.A New York judge has allowed significant portions of the case to proceed to discovery, potentially giving the family's lawyers access to internal Fox correspondence and other evidence.Judge Mary V. Rosado said it would be 'a grave injustice' to prevent the parents from investigating whether they had been told the truth about their daughter's death.Meanwhile, Zakrzewski's widow Michelle Ross-Stanton is pursuing a separate case in Britain. NPR reported that an earlier Washington Post story said she was seeking more than $11 million in compensation over allegations that Fox failed to adequately protect and insure her husband. Hall has three daughters with his wife Alicia Meller, an Australian fashion businesswoman Hall together with his wife and three daughters are pictured on a family vacationHall is pictured on his wedding day in 2015 alongside wife Alicia Meller. The two share three kidsFox continues to deny responsibility for the tragedy.Kuvshynova's parents insist their fight is about far more than money.'Fox treated us shamefully because they didn't consider us and didn't respect us,' her mother, Iryna Mamaysur, told NPR.'This world has lost Oleksandra Kuvshynova - a musician, a poet, an athlete, a photographer and the best daughter. It lost my love.'