A hotel regularly used by UN staff when visiting Ukraine has been damaged in a Russian missile attack – and commentators think it’s a warning to the international community.
A Russian missile hit the hotel – which local media report was called Reikartz hotel – in the city centre of Zaporizhzhia, near the bank of the Dnipro River at 7.20pm local time, on Thursday.
Photos and videos of the area show a large crater, destroyed vehicles and a damaged four-story building with a sign reading “HOTEL” half falling down on the outside.
The attack was confirmed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said: “Zaporizhzhia. The city suffers daily from Russian shelling. A fire broke out in a civilian building after the occupiers hit it with a missile.”
According to Zaporizhzhia governor Yuriy Malashko, 16 people were injured, including four children, and at least one person was killed. There were no UN personnel at the hotel at the time of the attack.
Speaking to Sky News, military analyst Professor Michael Clarke claimed the hotel is known for hosting international staff when they were visiting – and so Russia was trying to send a threat.
“That’s not a targeting error. This is a pattern to make it clear that the international community is in danger if it goes to these places, even a long way behind the frontline,” he said.
The specialist added: “It’s a message the Russians are sending because they don’t really care too much about the international view of this.”
UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown also expressed her dismay at the attack in an emailed statement sent to Reuters news agency.
She said: “I am appalled by the news that a hotel frequently used by United Nations personnel and our colleagues from NGOs supporting people affected by the war has been hit by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia shortly ago,” she said. “I have stayed in this hotel every single time I visited Zaporizhzhia.”
Others think it was a targeted move meant for Ukrainian children.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has suggested Moscow was deliberately targeting children, claiming on X (formerly Twitter) that it was the “site of a children’s day camp for kids aged 6 to 13”, which is open until 6pm daily.
The missile struck just after 7pm, concluding in its statement that it was “only a miracle of timing [which] saved the children from the Russian killers today.”
It was the second strike on the region in two days – a missile attack on Wednesday saw two women and a ma killed, and nine people wounded.
The region is one of the four Ukrainian areas illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin last September and so has seen intense fighting for months.