Member of British journalist team dies after Russian missile hits hotel in eastern Ukraine

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A British safety adviser working with a team of Reuters journalists was killed when a Russian missile struck a hotel in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the news agency confirmed.

Ryan Evans, 38, was staying at the Hotel Sapphire with colleagues in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region when it was hit by a Russian missile Saturday night.

Two other members of the six-person Reuters crew were hospitalized with injuries.

Local officials said the hotel was struck by an Iskander-M Russian ballistic missile, leaving the reporters with blast injuries, concussions and cuts on the body.

Associated Press reporters at the scene described the hotel as “rubble,” with excavators being used to clear debris hours after the attack.

Besides the hotel, a nearby multistory building was also destroyed, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.

Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region also came under Russian fire, resulting in multiple civilian injuries, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app Sunday.

In Kharkiv’s Chuhuiv region, five people were injured, including a 4-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, after two houses were hit by a Russian strike.

In Kharkiv city, eight people were wounded when a two-story house was set on fire by a Russian attack.

In Russia, five people died in Ukrainian shelling in of the border region of Belgorod, officials said Sunday.

Twelve other people were wounded in the Russian village of Rakitone, 38 kilometers (23 miles) from the Ukrainian border, including a 16-year-old girl reported to be in critical condition, said regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov on Sunday. Another man also died in a separate drone attack on the border village of Solovevka, he wrote later on social media.

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