Three days of mourning in the Poltava region. At least 49 people were killed and 216 injured in a Russian strike on Tuesday on the city of Poltava, 140 km from the front, inside Ukraine. “This is a terrible tragedy for the whole of Ukraine, wrote on her X account Olena Zelenska, the first lady. Russia is depriving us of our most precious possession: our lives. We will never forget it. Eternal memory.”
On the 923rd day of the war, the explosions occurred at around 9:10 in the morning. The sirens had sounded only two minutes earlier. The Russian army allegedly used two ballistic missiles, Kyiv assures: “The time interval between the alarm and the arrival of the deadly missiles was so short that it caught people off guard as they were evacuating to a bomb shelter,” said the official statement from the Ministry of Defense. “The alert was given, but unfortunately, even for the Poltava region, the response time to the threat is very short, of the order of minutes. Ballistics, especially for regions close to the front, are extremely dangerous. Iskander M, Kinzhal, C300/400, all ballistic devices fly very fast,” commented the Ukrainian Air Force, quoted by Ukrainian Pravda, urging people not to waste time in the event of an alert.
Shock wave
“It hit an educational institution and a nearby hospital. One of the buildings of the Institute of Communications was partially destroyed. People were trapped under the rubble. More than 180 people were injured. Unfortunately, there are many dead,” Volodymyr Zelensky announced earlier in the day on Telegram. While rescue operations were still underway, it was already one of the deadliest strikes since the start of the Russian offensive in February 2022.
Russian missiles targeted the Military Institute of Telecommunications and Informatization, now occupied by the 179th Training Center of Communications Troops. Ukrainian military bloggers claimed that the attack took place during an official outdoor ceremony, which was denied by the Defense Ministry. Nearby residential buildings were also damaged. The shock wave blew out windows and scratched facades. The police, who immediately received about a hundred reports of material damage, went door to door for hours, searching for possible victims.
Zelensky ordered an investigation “complete and fast” on all the circumstances of the incident, once again calling on Kyiv’s allies to untie its hands. “Those Russian bastards will have to answer for this attack, the Ukrainian president lambasted. And we repeat it again and again to all those in the world who have the power to put an end to this terror: air defense systems and missiles are needed in Ukraine, and not in a warehouse somewhere. Long-range strikes capable of protecting against Russian terror are needed now, and not later. Every day of delay, unfortunately, means human lives lost.
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