Reuters Security Adviser Killed In Ukraine

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A British man working for the Reuters news agency has been killed in a strike on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the news agency said on Sunday.

Ryan Evans, who was working as a safety adviser for the agency, was killed after a missile struck the Hotel Sapphire on Saturday, where he was staying as part of a six-person team.

The statement said two of the agency’s journalists were treated in hospital, and one was seriously injured.

The suspected Russian attack underscored the dangers faced by reporters and other media personnel covering the war.

At least 15 journalists and media workers have been killed covering the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

After the latest incident, Reuters said it was “urgently seeking more information about the attack, including by working with the authorities in Kramatorsk, and we are supporting our colleagues and their families.”

Evans, a former British soldier, had been working with Reuters since 2022 and advised its journalists on safety worldwide, including in Ukraine, Israel, and at the Paris Olympics. He was 38.

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“We send our deepest condolences and thoughts to Ryan’s family and loved ones. Ryan has helped so many of our journalists cover events around the world; we will miss him terribly,” Reuters said.

The CPJ suggested that more journalists and other media personnel could be targeted.

“Local journalists in Ukraine have been forced to transform themselves into war correspondents, working through curfews and blackouts and relying on safety training and equipment to help them survive,” the advocacy group added.

However, in Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, “the country’s independent media have been gutted as scores of journalists have fled onerous new media restrictions in their homeland,” the CJP stressed.

“And dozens of Belarusian journalists who had earlier found refuge in Ukraine from their own country’s media crackdown were forced to flee yet again,” it added.

They, too, are facing an uncertain and dangerous future.

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