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Reuters said a safety adviser working with the journalists was missing and two other members of its team were wounded after a hotel in eastern Ukraine was hit in a strike on Saturday.
Aug. 25, 2024Updated 1:18 p.m. ET
A safety adviser working with a team of journalists for the Reuters news agency was missing on Sunday and two journalists were wounded after the hotel in which they were staying in the city of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, was hit in a strike, Reuters and a Ukrainian military official said.
The strike hit the Hotel Sapphire on Saturday where a six-person Reuters team had been staying, said a Reuters statement. It gave no details of the episode or the identity of those involved, but said that the two people were being treated in hospital, while the others ”sustained mild injuries.” It was not immediately clear whether the hotel had been deliberately targeted.
Thousands of Ukrainian and international journalists have reported on the war, and Reporters Without Borders said in February that more than 100 journalists had been “victims of violence” in the conflict. Large news organizations often deploy safety advisers, many of whom have military backgrounds, in an effort to ensure security for their staff members working in major conflict zones.
The long front line in eastern Ukraine has been one of the deadliest parts of the country for journalists; its towns and cities, including Bakhmut and Sievierodonetsk, have been the site of some of the war’s fiercest fighting.
Before the war, Kramatorsk had a population of around 150,000 people, but it has been attacked repeatedly and was the site of one of the war’s deadliest attacks on civilians. Many people have heeded an evacuation order from the Ukrainian government.
The city lies around 16 miles west of the front line. The capture of Kramatorsk remains a long-term military objective for Moscow if it is to achieve its aim of securing the whole of the Donetsk region.
