“An ordinary city hotel was destroyed by the Russian Iskander,” he said in his evening address on Sunday, adding the strike was “absolutely purposeful, thought out… my condolences to family and friends”.

The Russian defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuters was not able to independently verify if the missile that hit the hotel was fired by Russia or if it was a deliberate strike on that building.

The Donetsk province’s regional prosecutor’s office said in a Telegram post earlier that the body of a British citizen had been found in the rubble of a hotel building in Kramatorsk.

The hotel was “destroyed” at 10.35pm local time (8.35pm BST) on Saturday “probably with an Iskander-M missile”, it said. 

The prosecutor’s office has opened a pre-trial investigation into the strike, it said.