(Reuters) -Ryan Evans, a member of the Reuters group overlaying the conflict in Ukraine, was killed and two Reuters journalists had been injured in a strike on a resort within the japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Kramatorsk, the information company mentioned on Sunday.
Evans, who was working as a security adviser for the company, was killed after a missile struck the Lodge Sapphire the place he was staying as a part of a six-person group on Saturday, Reuters mentioned in a press release.
Two of the company’s journalists had been being handled in hospital; one in every of them was significantly injured, it mentioned.
“We’re urgently in search of extra details about the assault, together with by working with the authorities in Kramatorsk, and we’re supporting our colleagues and their households,” Reuters mentioned.
Evans, a former British soldier, had been working with Reuters since 2022 and suggested its journalists on security around the globe together with in Ukraine, Israel and on the Paris Olympics. He was 38.
“We ship our deepest condolences and ideas to Ryan’s household and family members. Ryan has helped so lots of our journalists cowl occasions around the globe; we’ll miss him terribly,” Reuters mentioned.
The three different members of the Reuters group who had been within the resort on the time of the strike had been accounted for and secure, the company mentioned.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned the resort was hit by a Russian Iskander missile, a ballistic missile that may strike at distances as much as 500 km (310 miles).
“An atypical metropolis resort was destroyed by the Russian Iskander,” he mentioned in his night deal with on Sunday, including the strike was “completely purposeful, thought out … my condolences to household and mates”.
The Russian Defence Ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Reuters was not capable of independently confirm if the missile that hit the resort was fired by Russia or if it was a deliberate strike on that constructing.
The Donetsk province’s regional prosecutor’s workplace mentioned in a Telegram submit earlier that the physique of a British citizen had been discovered within the rubble of a resort constructing in Kramatorsk.
The resort was “destroyed” at 10:35 p.m. native time (1935 GMT) on Saturday “in all probability with an Iskander-M missile”, it mentioned. The prosecutor’s workplace has opened a pre-trial investigation into the strike, it mentioned.