Restaurants and accommodation popular with foreign journalists and aid workers close to the front line have become common targets
The wreckage of the Reikartz hotel smouldered in the distance as a young woman surrounded by her children peered through her fingers at the destruction wrought by a Russian missile.
Moments later a second ballistic missile roared overhead, sending the group diving for cover before another explosion and fireball engulfed the building in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
The Russian attack was what is known as a “double tap” strike, designed to target those drawn to an initial explosion. It was the second in a week, and also the latest to target a venue frequented by foreign aid workers and journalists.
A shift in tactics appears to have made restaurants and accommodation close to the front line common targets in Russia’s year-and-a-half-long assault on Ukraine.