British national killed and six injured in Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk hotel

A British national working for a Reuters news team has been killed, and another six people have been injured in a Russian strike on a hotel in Kramatorsk, according to authorities.

The body of safety advisor Ryan Evans was found under the rubble Sunday after a missile hit Hotel Sapphire in the eastern Ukrainian city the night before.

Four of the injured are a part of the same Reuters team. One of them is Ukrainian, and the other three are foreigners from the US, Latvia and Germany. Two were being treated in the hospital on Sunday.

Local officials said that the hotel had been struck by an Iskander ballistic missile, leaving the news team with blast injuries, concussions, and cuts on the body.

Reporters at the scene described the former hotel as “rubble,” with excavators still being used to clear debris hours after the attack.

In addition to the hotel, a nearby multi-storey building was also destroyed, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said.

Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region also came under Russian fire, resulting in multiple civilian injuries, governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.

In Chuhuiv, five people were injured, including a 4-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, after two houses were struck by Russian fire. In Kharkiv city, eight people were wounded when a two-story house was set on fire by a Russian attack.

In Balakliia, a Russian strike 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, wounding four women.