Russia attacks journalists' hotel, 5 dead in shelling of Russian border

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 in 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 the city of Kramatorsk in 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 rest 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 former 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 nearby multi-story building was also destroyed, Filashkin said, and rescue workers are busy clearing the rubble at the site.

The eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv also came under Russian shelling, resulting in numerous injuries among the civilian population, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on the messaging service Telegram.

In the Chuhuiv region of Kharkiv, five people were injured, including a four-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, when two houses were shelled by Russian troops. In the city of Kharkiv, eight people were injured when a two-story house was set on fire in a Russian attack.

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 four women.