Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has announced that the Russian army has hit a military school in Poltava with ballistic missiles, killing 41 people.
In a video message posted on his Telegram channel, Zelensky said: ‘The attack targeted the area where the educational institution is located and a nearby hospital. One of the buildings of the Institute of Communication was partially destroyed. People were trapped under the rubble. Many managed to escape. Over 180 people were injured. Sadly, many people lost their lives. So far we know that 41 people have died,’ he said.
Zelensky said the Russian army had fired two ballistic missiles at the area and ordered a full and speedy investigation into what had happened.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said that rubble removal was continuing and that 11 people had been pulled from under the rubble of the building.
Windows in nearby houses were shattered by the shockwave from the blast.
Klimenko said: ‘Police are going from flat to flat to check for casualties. There have been about 100 reports of material damage’.
Yesterday the Russian army launched a major rocket attack on Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
According to Sergei Popko, head of the military administration in Kiev, cruise and ballistic missiles were used in the attack. According to Popko, Russian strategic bombers launched Kh-101 cruise missiles from the Saratov region at around three o’clock.
Statement from Russia
Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the Russian Public Chamber’s commission on sovereignty, patriotic projects and support for veterans, also reported that Russian forces had launched a missile attack on the former Marshal Moskalenko Higher Military Command Communications School in Poltava, which trains specialists in radar and electronic warfare systems for the Ukrainian army.
Rogov, who issued a statement on his Telegram channel, noted that the losses were in the hundreds.
Former Ukrainian MP gives information on casualties
At the same time, former Verkhovna Rada deputy Igor Mosiychuk noted that Ukrainian troops suffered more than 600 casualties as a result of the attack by Russian forces on the military school in Poltava.
‘In Poltava, at the Institute of Communications, there are many, about 600 wounded and dozens of dead. The city’s hospitals are overcrowded,’ Mosiychuk said.
Mosiychuk added that the responsibility for what happened lay with the Ukrainian military leadership, which had allowed such an accumulation of personnel in one place.
