KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Five people were killed in Ukrainian artillery shelling in Russia's border region of Belgorod, officials said Sunday, while Russian forces attacked a hotel in eastern Ukraine. One journalist was missing and two others were injured.
Twelve other people were injured within the Russian village of Rakitone, 38 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, including a 16-year-old girl who was reportedly in critical condition, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Another man died in a separate drone strike on the border village of Solovevka, he later wrote on social media.
Russian forces attacked a hotel in town of Kramatorsk within the east of the Donetsk region overnight. Two people were injured and one was trapped under the rubble, said the region's governor, Vadym Filashkin. The attacks are said to have targeted journalists from Ukraine, the United States and Great Britain.
The Reuters news agency said on Sunday that its journalist covering the war in Ukraine was missing and two other team members had been hospitalized after the Sapphire hotel, which housed a six-person crew, was hit by “an apparent rocket attack” on Saturday. “One of our colleagues is missing, while two others have been taken to hospital for treatment,” the agency said.
The remainder of the team has already arrived, the news agency reported.
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 previous hotel as a “field of rubble” and hours after the attack, excavators were still working to clear away the rubble.
In addition to the hotel, a close-by multi-story constructing was also destroyed, Filashkin said, and rescue staff are busy clearing the rubble at the location.
The eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv also got here under Russian shelling, leading to quite a few injuries among the many civilian population, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on the messaging service Telegram.
In Balakliya, a Russian attack 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, injuring 4 women.
Follow AP's coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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