PARIS: Russia has deliberately targeted hotels used by journalists covering its war on Ukraine, the NGOs Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Truth Hounds said on Friday, calling the strikes “war crimes.”
At least 31 Russian strikes hit 25 hotels from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 to mid-March 2025, the two organizations said in a report.
One attack in August 2024 in the eastern city of Kramatorsk killed a safety adviser working with international news agency Reuters, Ryan Evans.
The hotels hit were mostly located near the front lines, the organizations said.
Just one was being used for military purposes.
“The others housed civilians, including journalists,” said RSF and Truth Hounds, a Ukrainian organization founded to document war crimes in the country.
“In total, 25 journalists and media professionals have found themselves under these hotel bombings, and at least seven have been injured,” they said.
At least 15 of the strikes were carried out with high-precision Iskander 9K720 missiles, they said, condemning “methodical and coordinated targeting.”
“The Russian strikes against hotels hosting journalists in Ukraine are neither accidental nor random,” Pauline Maufrais, RSF regional officer for Ukraine, said in a statement.
“These attacks are part of a larger strategy to sow terror and seek to reduce coverage of the war. By targeting civilian infrastructure, they violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.”
RSF says 13 journalists have been killed covering Russia’s invasion, 12 of them on Ukrainian territory.
That includes AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed in a rocket attack near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakmut on May 9, 2023. He was 32.

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Aramco continues to hold a place in the annual BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands Report 2025 by marketing data and analytics company Kantar.

Although it dropped by eight places to No. 22, Aramco is the only brand from the Middle East to have a presence in the global ranking.

US brands dominate the list, comprising 82 percent of the total value of the top 100 brands.

However, the report signals changing times, with Chinese brands having doubled their value over the past 20 years, now making up 6 percent of the value of the top 100 brands.

European brands, on the other hand, have seen a decline. They now account for 7 percent — down from 26 percent in 2006 — of the top 100 brands.

The top five spots are taken by tech companies Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia.

“Innovators keeping up with consumer needs or redefining them entirely are the brands fundamentally reshaping the Global Top 100 over the past two decades,” said Martin Guerrieria, head of Kantar BrandZ.

The most successful brands, like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, have long moved away from their original product base, he added.

Apple retained its top position for the fourth year in a row with a brand value of $1.3 trillion, up 28 percent from 2024.

Google and Microsoft recorded a 25 percent and 24 percent increase in brand value this year compared to last year, while Amazon’s brand value rose by a massive 50 percent.

ChatGPT debuted on the list this year in 60th place, showing “how a brand can find fame and influence society to the extent that it changes our daily lives,” Guerrieria said.

He cautioned that as competition grows in the AI space, “OpenAI will need to invest in its brand to preserve its first-mover momentum.”

Despite controversies and concerns, Instagram and Meta saw significant growths of 101 percent and 80 percent, respectively, while TikTok grew by a modest 25 percent.

The success of brands like Apple and Instagram “underlines the power of a consistent brand experience that people can relate to and remember,” said Guerrieria.

He added: “In a world of digital saturation and tough consumer expectations, brands need to meet people’s needs, connect with them emotionally and offer something others don’t to succeed. They need to be not just different, but meaningfully so.”