Russia attacks hotel in Ukraine housing journalists, killing a member of the British team

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

Ryan Evans, 38, was staying with colleagues at the Sapphire Hotel in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk when it was hit by a Russian missile on Saturday evening.

Two other members of the six-person Reuters crew were taken to hospital with injuries.

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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 hotel as a “field of rubble” and described how excavators were still being used to clear the rubble hours after the attack.

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

The eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv also came under Russian shelling, resulting in numerous injuries among the civilian population, the region's governor, Oleh Syniehubov, wrote on Sunday in the messaging service Telegram.

In the Chuhiiv region of Kharkiv, five people were injured, including a four-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, when two houses were hit by a Russian attack.

In the city of Kharkiv, eight people were injured when a two-story house was set on fire in a Russian attack.

In Russia, five people were killed in a Ukrainian artillery attack in the border region of Belgorod, officials said on Sunday.

Twelve other people were injured in the Russian village of Rakitone, 38 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, including a 16-year-old girl who was reportedly in critical condition, the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Sunday. Another man died in a separate drone strike on the border village of Solovevka, he later wrote on social media.