Russian missile strikes destroyed a popular hotel and apartments in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk on Monday night, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens of others injured, officials said. Five civilians were among those killed in the twin strikes, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram. The Druzhba (Friendship) Hotel, frequently used by journalists and aid workers, took a direct hit by one of the strikes. Witnesses told Reuters that two rescuers responding to the first blast were killed in the second, though the interior ministry said only that seven rescuers had been injured, along with 29 police officers and 29 civilians. Two children were also hurt, the ministry said. “A flame filled up my eyes,” resident Kateryna, 58, told Reuters. “I fell down on the floor, on the ground. My eyes (hurt) a lot.”
