SBU notifies Russian colonel general of suspicion for ordering missile strike that killed Reuters staff

The Security Service of Ukraine has issued a suspicion notice to the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, the colonel general who ordered the missile strike on a Kramatorsk hotel, which killed Reuters employee Ryan Evans and injured five of his colleagues and five civilians, reports the Prosecutor General's Office.

According to the investigators, the Deputy Chief of the RAF General Staff is, according to the temporary staff list, the chief of staff and Deputy Commander of the RAF Joint Group of Forces, as well as the chief of Fire and Nuclear Destruction Organization.

The officer was charged with waging a war of aggression and violating the laws and customs of war (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 437, Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The Security Service of Ukraine says that the suspect's name is Alexei Kim. It was Kim who signed the directive and gave the combat order to open fire on the hotel housing only civilians. The Russian colonel general involved one of the missile forces units subordinate to him for the attack. In accordance with Kim's combat order, his subordinates targeted the hotel with an Iskander-M ballistic missile.

Ryan Evans. Photo by Reuters on Facebook

Previously

The Russian missile strike on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk on August 24, 2024 killed Ryan Evans, a safety advisor with the British news agency Reuters. He and six other members of the Reuters team were staying in the hotel at the moment of the strike. Reuters cameraman Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey and Reuters journalist Daniel Peleshchuk were wounded, severely in Lyubysh-Kirdey's case.

On August 27, 2024, the Russian Telegram channel "Dva Mayora" that posts militarist propaganda admitted that the missile strike on Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk (Donetsk oblast) on August 24, when Reuters staff stayed there, had been deliberate.