Rescue workers recovered the man’s body from the rubble today (Picture: Genya Savilov/AFP)
A British journalist has been killed in a missile strike on a hotel in Ukraine on the country’s independence day.
The man, whose name has not been released, had been staying at Hotel Sapphire in Kramatorsk with five Reuters colleagues when it was hit on Saturday.
He was found dead today. Two of his colleagues were taken to hospital.
Oleksandr Honcharenko, head of the city’s military administration, said: ‘The body of a British citizen who died during a missile attack by the Russian Federation was recovered from under the rubble of a destroyed hotel building in Kramatorsk.’
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: ‘We are aware of reports of a British national missing in Ukraine and are seeking more information from the local authorities.’
At least six people were injured in the strike around 10.30pm last night.
This includes four foreign journalist aged 38, 40, 41 and 46, with head and leg wounds.
Ukrainian authorities blamed it on an Iskander-M missile fired by Russian forces.
The largest city occupied by Ukraine in the eastern Donbas region, Kramatorsk is a hub for humanitarian workers and journalists covering the war.
Alcohol might be banned, but cafés scattered between bombed out buildings still serve customers into the evening.
But the concentration of tanks and troops, and the city’s proximity to the frontline – just 13 miles – makes it a frequent target for Russian artillery strikes and air raids.
Novelist and war crimes investigator Victoria Amelina was dining with Colombian journalists at a pizza restaurant here when a Russian missile hit it in June 2023.
The Ukrainian writer was just 37 when she died along with 12 others, including four children.
At least 17 journalists have now died while reporting in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
This latest hotel strike came as Ukraine and Russia exchanged 115 prisoners of war from each side on Saturday.
Ukraine has also just developed a new ‘drone missile’ called Palianytsia, a type of bread Russians reportedly struggle to pronounce.
Announcing it yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: ‘It will be very difficult for Russia, difficult to even pronounce what exactly has hit it.’
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