As a result of a Russian missile strike on a hotel in Kramatorsk on the night of August 25, 2024, an employee of the British news agency Reuters was killed. In an attempt to justify this crime, Russian propagandists actively spread disinformation.
Commenting on the missile strike on Kramatorsk on August 25, in which a foreign journalist was killed, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated during a briefing with journalists: “Let me repeat once again: strikes are carried out against military infrastructure facilities, or those that are otherwise connected to it,” Regnum news agency reports.
The Russian army claims to strike “legitimate targets”—which end up being residential buildings, kindergartens, schools, and hotels.
The hostile Telegram channel “Two Majors” admitted that the Russian army deliberately shelled the “Sapphire” hotel when journalists were there. This was how they “punished violators of the Russian border” (only Russians know what they meant, since this is Ukrainian territory — author’s note). They also “showed the brazen representatives of the Western world the principle of the inevitability of punishment in action.”
“In Kramatorsk (DNR, Russia), a Reuters employee has been eliminated,” wrote the Telegram channel “Two Majors,” manipulating his military background. Journalist Denys Kazanskyi noted that the Telegram channel “Two Majors” has more than one million subscribers and serves as a mouthpiece for Russia’s Ministry of Defense, the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) reports.
In reality, the deceased, Ryan Evans, worked in Ukraine as part of a team of foreign journalists as a civilian security adviser to reporters working in combat zones. Against this backdrop, disinformation has spread claiming that “all NATO advisers work undercover as journalists and diplomats,” the Telegram channel “Another Ukraine” notes, citing unnamed Ukrainian media. “Such legends allow Western countries to publicly declare that their military are not participating in the conflict on Ukraine’s side.”
On the night of August 25, 2024, Russians struck the “Sapphire” hotel in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, with an Iskander missile. Journalists who travel to cover the war on assignment traditionally stay at the Sapphire. That evening, a team from the British agency Reuters was staying at the hotel. Three days later, on the night of August 27, 2024, the Russian army hit a hotel in Kryvyi Rih with an Iskander-M ballistic missile.
The outlet Arguments and Facts, in the article “Hotel Reduced to Dust. A Russian Armed Forces Missile Executed Dozens of NATO Mercenaries in Kryvyi Rih”, continues a disinformation campaign aimed at justifying strikes on civilian sites.
“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.” “We send our deepest condolences and thoughts to Ryan’s family and loved ones. Ryan helped many of our journalists cover events around the world; we will miss him terribly,” Reuters said.
All those affected by the missile strike were journalists—citizens of Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Latvia. A Reuters camera operator, Ukrainian journalist Ivan Liubysh-Kirdei, sustained severe injuries. He was operated on at a hospital in Dnipro, where he remains. That evening, Polish journalist Monika Andruszewska was also wounded. On her Facebook page, she said she was driving through the city when a missile struck nearby. Under a photo of her damaged car, Monika wrote:
“This can happen to anyone, anywhere in Ukraine, wherever the Russians decide to launch a missile strike. Not on the front line—just in a city in Donetsk region where, despite Russia’s genocidal actions, life goes on: cafés are open, beauty salons work, and children play on playgrounds.”
According to the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, four people were killed and five injured as a result of the overnight missile strike on a hotel in central Kryvyi Rih on August 27. Shops, high-rise buildings, and cars were also damaged. The purpose of spreading such fakes is to present hotels as military targets. The enemy deliberately strikes both civilians and journalists, who are the “eyes of the war” in Ukraine and around the world.
As Voice of America reports, Reporters Without Borders are calling for an investigation and will include the Kramatorsk incident in their own lawsuit.
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine reports that Ryan Evans became the 17th media worker killed in the line of duty since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Overall, according to the NUJU, the occupiers have killed at least 94 media workers, including civilian victims and those mobilized into the defense forces.
The Institute of Mass Information prepared tips on accommodation for journalists on assignment. The key rule is not to gather in places popular among journalists, because all of them are known to Russians.
This piece was produced with the support of The Fritt Ord Foundation.
Contributors:
Topic researcher, text author: Yana Yevmenova
Photo editor: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yuliia Futei
