MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Monday it had seen media reports about the death of a Reuters safety adviser in a missile strike on a Ukrainian hotel, and that Moscow targeted only military infrastructure in Ukraine.
“I’ll repeat once again. (Russian) strikes are carried out against military infrastructure objects, and, or against targets related to military infrastructure in one way or another,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call when asked about the incident.
Peskov did not say whether he put security advisors who protect journalists in the military category. Asked subsequently by Reuters to provide further details and explain his remarks, Peskov did not immediately respond.
Ryan Evans, a member of the Reuters team covering the war in Ukraine, was killed and two Reuters journalists were injured in a strike on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the news agency said on Sunday.
Like many news organisations, Reuters employs safety advisers to work with journalists deployed in conflict zones.
Evans, a former British soldier, had been working with Reuters since 2022 and advised its journalists on safety around the world including in Ukraine, Israel and at the Paris Olympics. He was 38.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the hotel was hit by a Russian Iskander missile, a ballistic missile that can strike at distances up to 500 km (310 miles).
Reuters was not able to independently verify if the missile that hit the hotel was fired by Russia or if it was a deliberate strike on that building.
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said he had read media reports about what had happened.
“I have read information from employees of the (news) agency that we’re not talking about a journalist here, but about some kind of security adviser,” said Peskov.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Towns and villages across Ukraine have been left devastated by what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. Kyiv accuses Russian forces of war crimes, something it denies.
(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, Writing by Andrew Osborn, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Timothy Heritage)
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