(POLTAVA, Ukraine) — Two ballistic missiles blasted a military training facility and nearby hospital Tuesday in Ukraine, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 200 others, Ukrainian officials said, in one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.
The strike hit the central-eastern city of Poltava, the capital of the region of the same name, partially destroying a building used by the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“People found themselves under the rubble. Many were saved,” Zelenskyy said in a video posted on his Telegram channel. He said he 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. Field communications trucks were parked along the perimeter.
Hours after the missile strikes, the smell of smoke had spread through town. Roads were covered in glass shards from shattered windows.
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Poltava Gov. Filip Pronin announced the death toll on Telegram and said 219 people were wounded. Up to 18 people may be buried under the rubble, he said.
Ten residential buildings were damaged, and more than 150 people have donated blood, Pronin said.
He called it “a great tragedy” for the region and all of Ukraine, and announced three days of mourning starting Wednesday.
“The enemy certainly must answer for all (its) crimes against humanity,” Pronin wrote on Telegram.
The Kremlin offered no immediate comment on the strike. It was not clear whether the dead and wounded were limited to Ukrainian military personnel, such as signal corps cadets, or if they included civilians.
Since it embarked on its full-scale invasion in early 2022, the Russian military has repeatedly used missiles to smash civilian targets, sometimes killing scores of people in a single attack.
Some of the deadliest such assaults included a 2022 airstrike on a theater in Mariupol that killed hundreds of civilians sheltering in the basement and a strike that same year on the train station in Kramatorsk that killed 61. Apartment buildings, markets and shopping centers have also been targeted.
Poltava is about 350 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Kyiv, on the main highway and rail route between Kyiv and Ukraine’s second-largest 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 Aug. 6 and as the Russian army hacks its way deeper into eastern Ukraine.
The missiles hit shortly after an air-raid alert sounded, when many people were on their way to a bomb shelter, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said, describing the strike as “barbaric.”
Rescue crews and medics saved 25 people, including 11 who were dug out of the rubble, a Defense Ministry statement said.
The strike came on the day that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia. There was no indication that his hosts would heed demands to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes.
Zelenskyy repeated his appeal for Ukraine’s Western partners to ensure swift delivery of military aid. He has previously chided the U.S. and 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. Some countries fear that hitting Russia could escalate the war.
“Ukraine needs air defense systems and missiles now, not sitting in storage,” Zelenskyy wrote in English on Telegram.
“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 said.
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Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.