At least five dead as Russia strikes Pokrovsk hotel used by journalists
Russian forces launched missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, killing five people and hitting a hotel used by journalists.
Kyiv said dozens were injured in the strikes which also hit a block of flats and a pizza restaurant.
Videos posted on social media after the attack on Monday showed the Druzhba Hotel had been badly damaged.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow had struck an “ordinary residential building” and published footage of a typical Soviet-era five-storey building that had its top floor destroyed.
Pokrovsk lies some 43 miles north-west of the city of Donetsk, held by Russia, about 30 miles from the front line. It had a pre-war population of around 60,000 people.
“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 increased to 31.
“Among them are 19 police officers, five rescuers and one child,” said Mr Klymenko.