KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile has struck a hotel in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, killing a British security adviser working with a team of journalists, Reuters confirmed.
Ryan Evans, 38, was staying with colleagues at the Sapphire Hotel in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine when it was hit by a Russian missile on Saturday night.
Two other members of a Reuters team of six were also injured and hospitalized.
Local authorities said the hotel was hit by a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile, leaving the journalists with blast injuries, concussions and cuts.
Associated Press journalists at the scene reported that the hotel appeared to be “rubbish” and that excavators were being used to clear it away hours after the attack.
Donetsk region governor Vadim Filashkin said the hotel was destroyed as well as a nearby high-rise building.
The Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine also came under attack by Russian forces, wounding many civilians, the region’s governor, Oleh Shniekhbov, wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.
In the Chukhuykh region of Kharkiv, Russian attacks damaged two houses and injured five people, including a four-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl.
In the city of Kharkiv, Russian troops set fire to a two-story house, injuring eight people.
Russian authorities said Sunday that five people were killed in Ukrainian artillery fire on the Belgorod border area.
Twelve people were wounded in the Russian village of Rakitne, 38 kilometers (23 miles) from the Ukrainian border, including a 16-year-old girl, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Sunday. He later posted on social media that another man had been killed in a separate drone strike on the border village of Solovka.
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