A powerful Russian attack hit an educational institution and a hospital on Tuesday afternoon in Poltava, central Ukraine, reports the Ukrainian news site TSZN.
“The Russian aggressor launched a barbaric attack on one of the city’s educational institutions. According to available information, the enemy used two ballistic missiles. The time interval between the alarm and the arrival of the deadly rockets was so short that the latter caught up with people at the moment they evacuated to shelters,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
As a result of the attack, one of the buildings of the college was partially destroyed, according to the ministry’s statement, many people were trapped under the ruins.
Thanks to the coordinated work of disaster managers and rescuers, 25 people have been rescued so far, eleven of whom were freed from the ruins. The disaster management is currently continuing the rescue work.
Heavy losses reported after Russian missile strikes on the buildings of Ukrainian Army’s 179th Training Center of Signal Troops in Poltava today.
Official death toll is at 41 with more than 180 injured. Many still under the rubble.
Unofficial numbers are way much higher. pic.twitter.com/lI8F7PWTyQ
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 3, 2024
Zelensky also spoke
Immediately after the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered a complete and speedy investigation into all the circumstances of the missile attack on Poltava.
According to the currently available information, it is about two ballistic missiles. The area of an educational institution and a neighboring hospital were hit. One of the buildings of the College of Communication was partially destroyed. People were trapped under the rubble. We managed to save many of them
– announced the president of Ukraine.
In his short statement, Zelenskiy wrote that according to preliminary data, there are 180 injured and 41 dead victims of the brutal strike.
Later, Dmitro Lazutkin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, published the latest data. According to this, the number of fatalities rose to 49, and the number of injured reached 219.
Search and rescue operations are currently underway. “My condolences to the families and friends. I ordered a full and rapid investigation into all the circumstances of what happened. All necessary services are involved in the rescue operation. I am grateful to every single person who has been helping people saving lives since the first minutes after the accident,” said Volodymyr Zelensky
The region was in mourning
Upon hearing the news of the attack, Filip Pronyin, the head of the Poltava Territorial Military Administration, announced three days of mourning in the region starting on September 4, reports Ukrainska Pravda.
“This is a great tragedy for the Poltava region and the entire country. The enemy’s insidious attack claimed 41 lives. More than 180 people were injured. My sincere condolences to the families and friends,” said the head of the area.
Starting tomorrow, the region will observe three days of mourning. May all victims rest in peace. The enemy must be held accountable for crimes against humanity
Filip Pronyin insisted.
The Russians claim that the attack targeted soldiers
Sergey Lebeyev, the pro-Russian “coordinator of the underground movement in Mykolaiv”, reported that an object located near the airport was struck in Poltava on Tuesday morning, reports MTI with reference to the Russian press.
They added: Vladimir Rogov, the co-chairman of the Integration Coordination Council of the New Regions, stated that the Ukrainian combat loss could be counted as hundreds of people. According to several Russian press reports, at least two Iskander missiles hit a facility,
in which – according to the Russian side – foreign trainers taught Ukrainian soldiers how to handle radio electronic warfare devices.
Footage of soldiers posing for a group photo in front of the alleged training building appeared on social media one after another – although it is not clear whether these footage were actually taken at the site of the impact of the ballistic missiles.
According to Moskovskiy Kosmopolets, the rocket hit at the exact moment when the personnel of the 128th Subcarpathian Mountain Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces lined up.
The paper claims that more than 600 people were present at the time of the impact.
According to the Russian Telegram channel called Mash, which also shared footage from the scene, one of the two rockets hit outside, at the location of the line-up, and the other hit in the dining hall of the training center. In addition, it was claimed that informants from the local population informed the Russian army about the lineup of Ukrainian soldiers before the strike.
In addition, the channel claimed that the attack killed mobilized Ukrainian soldiers who wanted to be sent to the front, presumably in the Donbass, in the Pokrovsk region.
Moskovskij Kosmopolec also recalled that this is not the first time that the mentioned Transcarpathian mountain brigade has come under Russian missile attack. Last November, they were hit by a rocket attack at an award ceremony held in a front-line village, as a result of which 28 people were killed and another 52 were wounded, they wrote.
We will also follow the developments of the war minute by minute in this article.
(Cover photo: A Ukrainian soldier in the Zaporizhia region of southeastern Ukraine on November 4, 2023. Photo: Ukrinform / NurPhoto / Getty Images)
#Index #Attack #hospital #Poltava #Russia #number #victims #exceeds
2024-09-03 18:03:09