On 24 August 2024, five journalists were wounded in a Russian missile attack on a hotel in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, according to media reports and information provided by Ukrainian authorities. A security adviser working for Reuters was also killed in the same attack (see separate alert).

Four of the five wounded journalists were staying at the Hotel Sapphire in Kramatorsk. They were part of a six-person Reuters reporting crew, the news agency said in a statement, noting that one of the injured journalists is in serious condition. The media worker was later identified as Ukrainian camera operator Ivan Lubysh-Kirdey, according to media reports and a Facebook post by his wife Mariia Semenchenko. On August 29, Semenchenko reported that her husband was still “unconscious” and receiving treatment at a hospital in the city of Dnipro, although doctors reportedly informed her that they observed “positive” dynamics regarding his condition.

Another of the wounded Reuters journalists, Dan Peleschuk, was treated at a hospital and was able to leave on August 26, the agency reported. Another Reuters journalist, Viktor Sayenko, sustained minor wounds not putting his life in danger, according to information obtained by IPI. Reuters was not known to have revealed the identity of the remaining member of its reporting crew wounded on-site.

According to Ukrainian officials, the Hotel Sapphire was “probably” struck by an Iskander-type missile and “destroyed” at around 10.30 p.m. local time. Eight casualties were reported in total, the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office later reported. Russian authorities are not known to have commented on the incident.

The fifth wounded media worker was Monika Andruszewska, a Polish journalist who reported for the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly. Andruszewska sustained minor injuries as a result of the strike when driving past the hotel at the time of the strike, she later wrote in a Facebook post.