At least 50 fatalities in Ukraine missile attack
TWO ballistic missiles have struck a military training facility and a nearby hospital in Ukraine, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 200 others, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.
It was one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war in Ukraine began over two years ago. The strike hit the city of Poltava, the capital of the Ukrainian province of the same name, partially destroying a building used by the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“People found themselves under the rubble. Many were saved,” Mr Zelensky said in a video posted on social media. He said he has ordered “a full and prompt investigation”.
Shattered bricks were visible inside the closed gates of the institution, which was off-limits to the media, and pools of blood could be seen just outside. Hours after the missile strikes, the smell of smoke had spread through the city. Roads were covered in glass shards from shattered windows.
Poltava’s provincial governor Filip Pronin announced the death toll on social media and said 219 people were wounded. Up to 18 people may be buried under the rubble, he added. Ten residential buildings were damaged, and more than 150 people have donated blood, Mr Pronin said. He called it “a great tragedy” for the province and all of Ukraine, and announced three days of mourning, starting today.
“The enemy certainly must answer for all [its] crimes against humanity,” Mr Pronin said. It was not immediately clear whether the dead and wounded were limited to military personnel, such as signal corps trainees, or if they included civilians.
Poltava is about 200 miles southeast of Kyiv, the country’s capital, on the main highway and rail route between Kyiv and Ukraine’s secondlargest city, Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border.
The attack happened as Ukrainian forces sought to carve out their holdings in Russia’s Kursk border region, after a surprise incursion that began on August 6, and as the Russian army hacks its way deeper into eastern Ukraine.
The missiles hit Poltava shortly after an air-raid alert sounded, when many people were on their way to a bomb shelter, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry stated, describing the strike as “barbaric”.
Rescue crews and medics saved 25 people, including 11 who were dug out of the rubble, a Defence Ministry statement said.
Mr Zelensky repeated his appeal for Ukraine’s Western partners to ensure swift delivery of military aid.
The Ukrainian president has previously chided the United States and also European countries for being slow to make good on their pledges of help. He also wants them to ease restrictions on what Ukraine can target on Russian soil with the weapons they provide.
“Ukraine needs air defence systems and missiles now, not sitting in storage,” Mr Zelensky wrote in English on social media. “Long-range strikes that can protect us from Russian terror are needed now, not later. Every day of delay, unfortunately, means more lost lives,” he added.