A Reuters team member is missing and two others were injured after Russian forces attacked a hotel in the east Ukrainethe news agency reported on Sunday.
The news agency said a six-member team of journalists covering the war in Ukraine were at the Sapphire Hotel in the town of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region when it was hit by “an apparent rocket attack” on Saturday.
One was missing – local authorities said he was trapped under the rubble – while two others were hospitalized. The news agency said the other team members were missing.
“We are urgently seeking further information, working with the authorities in Kramatorsk and supporting our colleagues and their families. We will provide an update as soon as we have more information,” it said.
Thomas Peter / REUTERS
The Associated Press reported that the journalists are from Ukraine, the United States and Great Britain.
Local authorities said the hotel was hit by a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile, causing the reporters to suffer blast injuries, concussions and cuts to their bodies.
Associated Press reporters on the scene described the former hotel as a “field of rubble,” and hours after the attack, excavators were still working to clear away the rubble.
In addition to the hotel, a nearby multi-story building was also destroyed, Filashkin said, and rescue workers are busy clearing the rubble at the site.
Yevgeny Maloletka / AP
In Russia’s border region of Belgorod, five people were killed by Ukrainian artillery shelling, while another 12 people – including a 16-year-old girl in critical condition – were injured in the Russian village of Rakitone, about 37 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said another man died in a separate drone strike on the border village of Solovevka.
The eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv also came under Russian shelling, resulting in numerous injuries among the civilian population, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on the messaging service Telegram.
In the Chuhuiv region of Kharkiv, five people were injured, including a four-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, when two houses were shelled by Russian troops. In the city of Kharkiv, eight people were injured when a two-story house was set on fire in a Russian attack.
In Balakliya, a Russian attack destroyed six houses and damaged others. A 55-year-old man was injured. In the Kupiansk area, a house was set on fire by a Russian attack, injuring four women.
