Reuters confirmed on Sunday that Ryan Evans, a 38-year-old Briton who was a security adviser to the news agency's team covering the Russia-Ukraine war, was killed and two journalists were wounded in an attack on a hotel in eastern Ukraine on Saturday night.
The news agency said the journalists were being treated in hospital, one of them seriously injured. Reuters reported on Sunday that “three other colleagues have been confirmed safe” in the attack, which took place on Saturday evening at the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, where a six-member Reuters team was staying.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Sunday speech on Twitter that the hotel was “destroyed by a Russian Iskander missile. It was deliberate and calculated,” referring to a Russian short-range ballistic missile. The Associated Press reported that the attack was carried out by Russian forces.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian government's press team for comment in an email on Sunday.
The Ukrainian president said seven people were wounded and one was killed, adding that “it took a whole day to clear the rubble.” The Associated Press and Zelensky reported that the injured were from Ukraine, the United States and Britain.
Reuters said Evans, a former British soldier, had worked for the news agency since 2022 and “advised the agency's journalists on security issues around the world, including in Ukraine, Israel and the Paris Olympics.”
“Our deepest condolences and sympathies go to Ryan's family and loved ones. Ryan helped many of our journalists cover events around the world and we will miss him greatly,” Reuters reported.
Newsweek reached out to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry for comment in an email on Sunday afternoon.
Today in Kramatorsk, the whole day was spent clearing the rubble after a Russian missile attack. Among the injured were journalists, including a Reuters film crew, Ukrainian, American and British citizens. An ordinary hotel in the city was destroyed by a Russian “Iskander” missile. Deliberately… pic.twitter.com/vvKQNFKW8o
— Volodymyr Zelensky / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 25, 2024
Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadym Filashkin said in a Telegram post in Ukrainian on Sunday afternoon that one Reuters journalist had been killed and six others had been injured, including four journalists and two local residents. “The dead person was a British journalist,” he said.
Photos circulating online showed the hotel reduced to rubble and Ukrainian emergency services searching through the rubble.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office said in a Telegram statement on Sunday that it had opened a “pre-trial investigation” into the attack, which allegedly took place at 10:35pm local time on Saturday.
Kramatorsk is one of the few cities in the Donetsk region that remains under Ukrainian control. Russia has been involved in an armed conflict in the region since 2014 that, according to the International Crisis Group, killed at least 14,000 people before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian forces have continued to increase pressure in the region, gaining strength over the past two and a half years.
Ukrainian emergency workers stand in the rubble of a destroyed hotel after an airstrike in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on August 25. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that a Russian missile had hit the hotel where members of a Western Reuters team covering the war between Russia and Ukraine were staying. One team member is missing and two are in hospital, Reuters reported. View more GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images
Recent years have been marked by extreme violence and attacks against journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that at least 116 journalists have been killed since the Israeli-Hamas war began in October 2023, “making it the deadliest period for journalists since 1992, when CPJ began collecting data.” The organization currently indicates that 43 journalists have been killed worldwide in 2024, and did not post about this latest attack.
Russia announced on Thursday that it had filed criminal charges against a CNN correspondent and two Ukrainian journalists for allegedly entering the country illegally while covering the Ukrainian military's invasion of the Kursk region, following similar actions earlier filed against two Italian journalists.
Since the Aug. 6 surprise attack, Ukrainian forces have been pushing into Russia's Kursk region and into the neighboring Belgorod region in recent weeks in what is the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that Ukrainian artillery fire killed five people in the Russian city of Belgorod and wounded 12 in the Russian city of Lakitone, authorities said.
Updated 5:37pm, Aug. 25, 2024: This story has been updated with additional information and background from Reuters. The headline has also been updated.
