Photo: Patryk Jaraccz Agence France-Presse Medics waited outside the military training institute hit by Russian missiles in Poltava, eastern Ukraine, on Tuesday. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the two-and-a-half-year war.
Agence France-Presse in Poltava
Published at 11:08 a.m. Updated at 3:35 p.m.
- Europe
At least 51 people were killed and at least 271 injured Tuesday in a Russian missile strike on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine, which partially destroyed a military institute, according to a new official toll that is likely to rise further.
“As of 18:00, 51 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the attack,” the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said. Regional Governor Filip Pronin added that “up to 18 people may be under the rubble.”
Early in the evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in his daily online address that the search for survivors was continuing in the rubble and that the number of injured had so far risen to 271.
Popular bloggers and officials have harshly criticized the Ukrainian military command after the particularly deadly attack, which they said targeted a group of soldiers gathered for an outdoor ceremony.
President Zelensky said that two ballistic missiles had hit “an educational institution and a nearby hospital” in Poltava.
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“One of the buildings of the Institute of Communications was partially destroyed. People were found under the rubble,” he said in a video message, referring to the institution founded in the 1960s and which trains specialists in military telecommunications.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the strike came very quickly after the air raid alert was sounded. The missiles “caught people evacuating to the underground shelter.”
“Thanks to the coordinated work of rescuers and doctors, 25 people were rescued, eleven of whom were able to be freed from the rubble. Rescuers are currently continuing their work,” the ministry added.
The attack took place in the morning on Poltava, a city located about 300 kilometers east of Kiev and which had some 300,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000An AFP journalist on the scene saw several ambulances heading towards the site shortly after the strike. Local media outlets broadcast appeals for people to donate blood.
Images posted on social media showed a multi-story building gutted and rescue workers working amid rubble.
“Tragedies keep happening again”
The bombing was condemned by US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who called it “a terrible reminder” of President Putin’s “brutality.”
British Foreign Minister David Lammy called it “a sickening act of aggression in [Vladimir] Putin’s heinous and illegal war in Ukraine.”
“Putin’s brutality knows no bounds,” said his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock.
The strike also sparked anger among Ukrainian military bloggers, who, like Russia, have some influence because of the war.
According to some of them, The Russian army was aiming for an official military ceremony in the open air, which meant a large concentration of soldiers made it an easy target.
“Poltava… How come so many people were gathered in such a facility ?,” asked blogger Sergei Naumovitch, followed by more than 135,000 people on Facebook.
MP Mariana Bezugla, a member of the parliament’s Defense Committee and a strong critic of the Ukrainian military command, expressed regret on Telegram that no high-ranking officers had been punished for endangering groups of servicemen during similar incidents in the past.
“Tragedies are repeating themselves. When will this stop ?,” she wrote.
The Defense Ministry has assured that no outdoor ceremonies were taking place at the time of the tragedy.
The Ukrainian president said he had ordered “a full and prompt investigation” into the circumstances that allowed the Russian attack.
He also promised to hold Russia “accountable” and once again called on kyiv’s Western allies to urgently deliver more air defense systems and to allow Ukraine to reach deep into Russian territory with the long-range missiles it has been supplied with.
Several Western countries, including the United States, have so far refused to give the green light to such bombings beyond the border regions for fear of an escalation with Moscow.
The Russian military command had also been strongly criticized on several occasions since the beginning of the war after deadly Ukrainian strikes targeting concentrations of soldiers.
Russian military bloggers on Tuesday released aerial images taken by a drone that appear to match the institute building in Poltava.
Last week, the Ukrainian military leadership had already come under pressure following the crash of an F-16 fighter jet, a valuable piece of military equipment recently delivered to Kiev after more than two years of waiting, and the death of its U.S.-trained pilot.
Mr. Zelensky then dismissed the air force commander, Mykola Oleshchuk.