Several dozen people were killed in a Russian missile attack on a military institute in central Ukraine. President Zelenskyj is once again demanding certain weapons.
At least 50 people were killed in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava in one of the most serious Russian missile attacks since the start of the war. The number of injured has risen to 219, said the Defense Ministry spokesman.
Second rocket hit while helpers were on their way
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the two rockets hit shortly after the air raid warning began, when many people were still on their way to the air raid shelters. Online services and local media called on the population to donate blood and help care for the injured.
Poltava’s governor Philip Pronin said up to 18 people were believed to be still under the rubble. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the rockets hit “an educational institution and a neighboring hospital” in Poltava. “A building of the Institute of Communications was partially destroyed,” Zelensky said on the online service Telegram.
“The window flew open. There was dust everywhere. I just had time to warn my sister about the rocket,” said local resident Yevgeniya Chyrva.
Poltava is located about 300 kilometers east of Kiev and had about 300,000 inhabitants before the war.
Baerbock: “Putin knows no limits to brutality”
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wrote on the online service X that the second rocket hit “while helpers were already tending to the injured.” Russian President Vladimir Putin knows “no limits to brutality.” “He must be held accountable,” demanded Baerbock. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy wrote on X that the attack in Poltava was another “disgusting act of aggression in Putin’s heinous and illegal war in Ukraine.”
In Ukraine, however, the attack also sparked sharp criticism of the Ukrainian military leadership. Russian military bloggers had reported that the attack was aimed at an open-air military ceremony. They therefore criticized why such gatherings were taking place despite the danger posed by Russian attacks. “How can it be that such a large number of people can come together in such a facility?” criticized Ukrainian military blogger Sergei Naumovich.
Ukrainian President Selenskyj calls for more weapons
Zelenskyy said he had ordered “a comprehensive and rapid investigation” into the circumstances of the attack in Poltava. He announced that he would “hold Russia accountable” and again called on Kyiv’s Western allies to quickly supply his country with new air defense systems and to allow them to use long-range weapons already delivered for attacks on Russian territory.
Source: Stern
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