Eight killed in Russian missile strikes on hotel in Ukraine

At least eight killed and dozens wounded in Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk as Russian missile strikes target popular hotel and apartment blocks

• Two missiles hit the centre of Pokrovsk within 40 minutes of each other Monday
• Horrifying images showed desperate civilians evacuating the scene of blasts

Russian forces launched yet another round of missile strikes last night, killing eight people and wounding dozens in an attack on a popular hotel and an apartment block in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko initially said seven people, including five civilians, were killed, but local officials increased the death toll to eight overnight.

Two missiles hit the centre of Pokrovsk within 40 minutes of each other, witnesses said. Pictures posted by officials showed that the Druzhba (Friendship) hotel, in the centre of the city, suffered a direct hit, with several floors missing.

Some 67 people were injured in the blasts. 

Residents said the hotel was popular with journalists, aid workers and the military. It was one of the few still operating in the eastern Donetsk region, close to the frontline.

Horrifying images from the scene showed desperate civilians carrying their injured countrymen from the rubble, blood spattered across their exposed skin. 

‘We are resuming clearing the rubble. At night, we were forced to suspend work due to the high threat of repeated shelling,’ Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

A man carries an injured Ukrainian woman after an explosion of a second rocket in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk area, Ukraine, 07 August 2023

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, people carry a wounded person from a damaged building after Russian missile strikes in Pokrovsk

A view shows residential buildings damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine August 8, 2023

Rescuers work at the site of a building destroyed during a Russian missile strike

A view shows a building destroyed during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine August 7, 2023

A wounded local resident stands near her destroyed flat in an apartment building destroyed during a Russian missile strike

Rescuers are at work near a damaged residential building following Russian missiles strikes in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine

In his evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia used Iskander ballistic missiles to attack ‘usual residential buildings’ in Pokrovsk, accusing Putin of trying to leave nothing but ‘broken and scorched stones’ in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, an overnight attack on the town of Kruhliakivka, in the Kharkiv region, killed two people and injured nine others, governor Oleh Synehubov said.

Kateryna, a 58-year-old resident of Pokrovsk, was at home when she heard the first blast. She told a relative who called to check on her that she was all right but then the block was hit in a second blast.

‘That’s it – bang – and that’s all. A flame filled up my eyes. I fell down on the floor, on the ground. My eyes (hurt) a lot,’ Kateryna told a Reuters journalist, pointing at multiple scratches around her eyes. She had bandages on her forehead.

Video footage showed rescuers sifting through rubble, wreckage of a car and an apartment building with balconies torn away from the wall.

Another resident, 75-year-old Lidia, said she was on the phone when the second blast hit. She had just picked up a torn white curtain covered with broken glass from the first blast.

‘Suddenly this flew out and wrapped me up. Then the window fell on me,’ she said from her sofa.

‘My back has cuts. I just got back from the hospital… My knee and my thigh have cuts.’ Pointing at her head, she said: ‘I had glass here.’

A local resident sleeps in his flat in an apartment building damaged during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine August 8, 2023

Rescuers work at a site of a building destroyed during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine August 8, 2023

Rescuers work with heavy machinery, at the site of a building destroyed during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine August 8, 2023

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged after Russian missile strikes in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023

Medics carry a wounded local resident after a Russian missile strike in an apartment building, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine August 8, 2023

A wounded local resident is seen in her destroyed flat in an apartment building destroyed during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine August 8, 2023

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022 in what the Kremlin is still calling a ‘special military operation’. Today marks the 531st day of the full-scale war.

Russian missiles, drones and artillery have repeatedly struck civilian areas in the conflict.

The Kremlin says its forces target only military assets and claim other damage is caused by debris from Ukrainian air defence weapons. 

The deadly attack in Pokrovsk last night came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine. 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having ‘the slightest added value’ because Moscow – unlike Kyiv – wasn’t invited.

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