AFP :
A safety advisor working for Reuters was killed in a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine, the global news agency said on Sunday, as Kyiv claimed further advances into Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukraine meanwhile accused neighbouring Moscow-allied Belarus — which allowed Russia to use its territory as a launchpad for the February 2022 invasion — of “concentrating” troops on the border and warned it to stop “unfriendly” actions.
In another bloody day in the two-and-a-half-year war, Russian attacks killed at least 18 civilians across Ukraine, while Russian officials said six civilians were also killed in Ukrainian strikes on Russian border regions.
Reuters said it was “devastated” by the loss of its security advisor following the strike late on Saturday at the Hotel Sapphire in the city of Kramatorsk, where six of its crew covering the war were staying.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the strike.
“For all this, the world must not stop putting pressure on the terrorist state,” he said, referring to Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Reuters said the strike left two of its journalists in hospital, one with serious injuries, while three others were safe.
Ukrainian prosecutors said the hotel was hit by a Russian Iskander missile at 10:35pm on Saturday, with the strike also damaging the building next door.
Kramatorsk — the last major city under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region — is often used as a base for aid workers and foreign journalists.
Reuters said the advisor who was killed had “helped keep so many of our journalists safe as they covered events around the world. He was a dear colleague and friend, and we will miss him terribly.”
Ukraine claims Kursk advances
Kyiv meanwhile claimed further advances into Russia’s Kursk region, where it launched a counter-offensive on August 6.
Zelensky claimed Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Kursk had yielded small advances — “from one to three kilometres” — and taken control of two more Russian settlements.
Catching Russia off-guard, Kyiv’s incursion has rattled Moscow and displaced more than 130,000 people but has not slowed the Russian troops’ advance in eastern Ukraine.