Ryan Evans, 38, was staying at the Hotel Sapphire with colleagues in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region when it was hit by a Russian missile Saturday night.

Two other members of the six-person Reuters crew were hospitalised with injuries.

Reuters safety advisor Ryan Evans has died in Ukraine. (AP)

Local officials said the hotel was struck by an Iskander-M Russian ballistic missile, leaving the reporters with blast injuries, concussions and cuts on the body.

Associated Press reporters at the scene described the hotel as “rubble,” with excavators being used to clear debris hours after the attack.

Besides the hotel, a nearby multistory building was also destroyed, said Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

A tractor clears the rubble after a Russian strike on the Sapphire hotel in Kramatorsk. (AP)

Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region also came under Russian fire, resulting in multiple civilian injuries, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app Sunday.

In Kharkiv’s Chuhuiv region, five people were injured, including a four-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, after two houses were hit by a Russian strike.

In Kharkiv city, eight people were wounded when a two-storey house was set on fire by a Russian attack.

June 17

Ukraine defenders ‘bending but not breaking’ in fierce fighting

In Russia, five people died in Ukrainian shelling in of the border region of Belgorod, officials said today.

Twelve other people were wounded in the Russian village of Rakitone, 38km from the Ukrainian border, including a 16-year-old girl reported to be in critical condition, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Another man also died in a separate drone attack on the border village of Solovevka, he wrote later on social media.

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