Tragic loss: Reuters journalist Ryan Evans killed during strike in Kramatorsk

Ryan Evans, a member of the Reuters team covering the war in Ukraine, was killed and two Reuters journalists were injured in an attack on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the news agency reported on Sunday.

Evans, who worked as a security adviser for the agency, was killed when a missile hit the Sapphire hotel on Saturday where he was staying as part of a six-person team, a Reuters statement said. Two agency journalists were being treated in hospital; one of them was seriously injured, it said.

“We are urgently seeking further information about the attack, including through cooperation with the authorities in Kramatorsk, and we are supporting our colleagues and their families,” Reuters said. Evans, a former British soldier, had worked for Reuters since 2022, advising its journalists on security issues around the world, including in Ukraine, Israel and at the Paris Olympics. He was 38 years old.

“We extend our deepest condolences and thoughts to Ryan's family and loved ones. Ryan helped so many of our journalists cover events around the world; we will miss him terribly,” Reuters said. The three other members of the Reuters team who were in the hotel at the time of the attack are safe and sound, the agency said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the hotel was hit by a Russian Iskander missile, a ballistic missile that can strike up to 500 km. “An ordinary city hotel was destroyed by the Russian Iskander,” he said in his evening address on Sunday, adding that the attack was “absolutely targeted and well thought out… my condolences to family and friends.”

The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not independently verify whether the missile that hit the hotel was fired by Russia or whether it was a deliberate attack on the building.

The regional prosecutor's office of Donetsk province said earlier in a Telegram post that the body of a British citizen had been found in the rubble of a hotel building in Kramatorsk. The hotel was “destroyed” on Saturday at 10:35 p.m. local time (19:35 GMT), “presumably with an Iskander-M missile,” it said. The prosecutor's office has launched a preliminary investigation into the attack, it said.

(With contributions from agencies.)