Russian strike on Ukraine city kills five, damaging hotel frequented by journalists

Two Russian missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, including on a residential building, killed at least five people and wounded many more, officials in Kyiv said. Prominent journalists noted that a hotel and pizzeria damaged in the strike were known to be popular among correspondents covering the war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow had struck an “ordinary residential building”, publishing footage of a typical Soviet-era five-storey building that had its top floor destroyed. Ukraine said rescue operations were ongoing.

Pokrovsk lies 70 kilometres (43 miles) north-west of the city of Donetsk, held by Russia, and 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the frontline.

The head of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said the strikes damaged two “private sector residential buildings, a hotel, catering establishments, shops and administrative buildings.”

“Five people died,” Igor Klymenko, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, said on Telegram.

The second attack killed a high-ranking emergency official of the Donetsk region, he added. He later said the number of wounded was 31.

“Among them are 19 police officers, five rescuers and one child.”

The hotel, Druzhba Hotel, and a pizzeria, Corleone, damaged in the strikes were popular among journalists, correspondents from the BBC, Financial Times, Globe and Mail and Channel 4 news noted. Some compared the attack to a missile strike in June on Kramatorsk, which killed prominent Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina.

“We stayed at this hotel in May to report on the thousands returning to their homes close to the frontline. Five people killed & 31 injured. The risks are real and enduring,” James Waterhouse, the BBC’s Ukraine correspondent, wrote on Twitter following the attack.

The Financial Times’s Christopher Miller tweeted, “Russian forces launched a missile attack on central Pokrovsk city and Druzhba Hotel and Corleone pizzeria, both of which were frequented by journalists, in a Kramatorsk-style attack.”

Maria Avdeeva, a security expert documenting Russian war crimes, tweeted, “Pizza place Corleone in Pokrovsk, a frequent spot for volunteers and foreign journalists, appears to be a target, much like Rio pizza in Kramatorsk.”

President Zelenskiy had earlier warned there would be “victims” in the strike, sharing a video of people clearing rubble from the building. It showed civilians helping people lying on the floor outside a building and an ordinary car covered in rubble. The footage also showed a second building that appeared to be heavily damaged. He warned of the “threat of repeated attacks” and urged residents to take shelter.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report