Kyiv: The Russian strikes on a military training center and a hospital have killed at least 51 and injured 219, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. Two Russian missiles struck a military training facility and a nearby hospital in the city of Poltava in the central-eastern province of the same name earlier this week. The military facility struck is the Poltava Military Institute of Communications.
The strikes in Poltava come at a time when Russia is closing in on the city of Pokrovsk, a strategically important city whose loss could lead to the loss of the entire region of eastern Ukraine. Even as Ukraine has made gains inside Russia, Ukraine has failed to stop the march of Russia towards Pokrovsk as Russians have scored a string of victories lately and are just 6-7 miles from the city.
Even as the battered military institution remained off-limits to the media, shattered bricks inside and pools of blood from the dead and the injured could be seen from outside the facility, AP news agency reported. Hours after the strikes, the smell of smoke had spread through Poltava and roads were covered in glass shards from shattered windows, as per the agency.
The agency quoted the defense ministry as saying earlier in the evening that 25 people were evacuated from the site of the attacks, including 11 who were dug out of the rubble. Following the attacks, the deadliest since Russia declared war on Ukraine in 2022, Zelenskyy repeated his request for partners to provide more air defense systems and long-range missiles.
For several months, Zelenskyy has been urging partners to provide long-range missiles to Ukraine. He has been specifically urging the United States to permit Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russia just like Russia strikes targets all over Ukraine. The United States has so far only allowed defensive usage of its equipment and very limited usage inside Russia’s border regions of the equipment that it has provided.
In a post on X, he said, “We continue to urge everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror: Ukraine needs air defense systems and missiles now, not sitting in storage. Long-range strikes that can protect us from Russian terror are needed now, not later. Every day of delay, unfortunately, means more lost lives.”
Putin welcomed in Mongolia despite ICC arrest warrantRussian President Vladimir Putin touched down in Mongolia this week, defying an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued last year. It’s his first visit to an ICC member nation since the Hague-based court found Putin guilty of illegally deporting Ukrainian children when the invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. As the West and Ukraine urged Mongolia to detain the visiting president, Putin was given an honor guard the night before he landed in the country. |
