Ukraine: Two Reuters staff injured, one missing after hotel strike

Two Reuters staffers were injured and another is missing after a strike that hit a hotel in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Saturday night, authorities and the news agency said. < /p>

The attack came during a particularly deadly weekend in Ukraine and Russia, with at least 20 civilians killed in several bombings in the past 24 hours.

Vadym Filashkin, governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where most of the fighting is taking place, said the hotel in Kramatorsk “was targeted” by the Russian military.

“One of our colleagues is missing, while two others have been taken to hospital for treatment,” Reuters said in a statement, adding that three other members of their team were unharmed.

“We are urgently seeking further information, working with the authorities in Kramatorsk and providing support to our colleagues and their families,” the news agency added.

According to Governor Filachkin, the three victims are “citizens of Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom.” The attack, which damaged the Sapphire Hotel and a neighboring building, took place “in the middle of the night,” he continued on Telegram. “Police and rescuers are working at the scene. The rubble is being cleared and rescue operations are underway,” he added.

Rescue workers in the rubble of a hotel in Kramatorsk (Ukraine) on August 25, 2024. © AFP – Genya SAVILOV

AFP journalists in Kramatorsk saw rescuers inspecting the rubble of the hotel using flashlights.

In the morning, rescue services were still clearing the rubble from the building, AFP noted.

– City often targeted –

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The last major city in Donbass under Ukrainian control, Kramatorsk is located about twenty kilometers west of the border front.

Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, this city, which had a population of around 150,000 before the war, has been the target of repeated attacks by Russian forces.

In April 2022, the Kramatorsk train station was the target of a bombing that left more than 60 dead. In June 2023, a strike on a restaurant in the city left 13 dead.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, 14 people have been killed in Russian bombings in the last twenty-four hours: seven in the Donetsk region (east) and four in the Sumy region (north), according to local authorities.

In the Kherson region (south), three people were killed, according to Ukrainian police. “The Russian military fired on residential areas in the Kherson region using multiple rocket launchers, artillery, aircraft and drones,” it said on Telegram.

At least 34 people were also injured in the strikes.

A column of smoke in the Donetsk region (Ukraine) on August 24, 2024. © AFP – Genya SAVILOV

On the Russian side, six people were killed in Ukrainian bombings in the Belgorod region during the night, announced Sunday Viatcheslav Gladkov, the governor of this region neighboring that of Kursk, attacked for more than two weeks by kyiv.

According to him, 13 people were also injured, six of whom are “in serious condition”, including a 16-year-old girl who is in intensive care.

The governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, reported that four Ukrainian missiles had been shot down late Saturday evening.

According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, at least 11 journalists have been killed in Ukraine and 35 injured since the start of the Russian invasion launched in February 2022.

AFP's video coordinator in Ukraine, Arman Soldin, was killed on May 9, 2023 at the age of 32, in a rocket attack during from a report in Chassiv Yar, near the front in the Donetsk region.

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