At least 51 people were killed and 271 injured on Tuesday in a Russian missile strike on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine, which partially destroyed a military institute, according to an official report.
“As of 18:00 (15:00 GMT), 51 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the attack,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said. Regional Governor Filip Pronin added that “up to 18 people could be under the rubble.”
In his daily online address early this evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the search for survivors in the rubble was continuing 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 two ballistic missiles hit “an educational institution and a nearby hospital” in Poltava.
“One of the buildings of the Institute of Communications was partially destroyed. People were found under the rubble,” he stressed in a video message, speaking of this establishment founded in the 1960s and which trains specialists in military telecommunications.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the strike took place within a very short time after the air raid alert was triggered. 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,” the ministry added.
The attack took place in the morning on Poltava, a city located about 300 kilometers east of kyiv and which had some 300,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion.
An AFP journalist on the scene saw several ambulances heading towards the site shortly after the strike. Local media broadcast appeals for people to donate blood.
– “Tragedies repeat themselves” –
US President Joe Biden condemned “in the strongest terms” this “deplorable” strike.
“This attack is a tragic reminder of Putin’s continued and outrageous attempts to break the will of a free people,” he said in a statement, assuring that the United States “will continue” to support the Ukrainians, “including by providing them with the air defense systems and capabilities they need to protect their country.”
The strike also sparked anger among Ukrainian military bloggers, who, like in 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, meaning a large concentration of soldiers, which made it an easy target.
“Poltava… How did such a large number of people get 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.
“The tragedies keep happening. When will it stop?” she wrote.
The Ministry of Defense assured for its part that no open-air ceremony was taking place at the time of the tragedy.
The Ukrainian president said he had ordered “a full and rapid investigation” into the circumstances that led to the Russian attack.
He 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 start of the war following deadly Ukrainian strikes targeting concentrations of soldiers.
Russian military bloggers on Tuesday released aerial footage taken by a drone that appears to match the institute’s building in Poltava.
Last week, the Ukrainian army command had already found itself under pressure due to the crash of an F-16 fighter jet, a valuable piece of military equipment recently delivered to kyiv after more than two years of waiting, and the death of its pilot, trained in the United States.
Mr Zelensky then dismissed the air force commander, Mykola Oleshchuk.
On Tuesday, Mr Zelensky also dismissed his deputy chief of staff, Rostyslav Shurma, by decree.
And several ministers, including those of Strategic Industries, Justice and the Environment, have presented their resignations, a prelude to a government reshuffle after two and a half years of war.
“As promised, a major government reshuffle can be expected this week. More than 50% of the government members will be replaced,” David Arakhamia, leader of parliamentarians from the ruling Servant of the People party, wrote on Telegram.
bur-pop/roc/alh
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