At least 41 killed in Russian attack on military academy in central Ukraine

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A Russian missile attack killed at least 41 people and injured 180 others in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy said two ballistic missiles struck the territory of an educational institution and a nearby hospital on Tuesday. A building on the campus of the Military Academy of Telecommunications and Information Technologies was partially destroyed, he added.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on the messaging platform Telegram that shock waves from the explosions further damaged several nearby buildings and shattered many windows.

The attack was one of the worst since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and deadliest since early July as airstrikes hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv and civilian infrastructure in several cities across Ukraine.

Poltava is home to more than 280,000 people and is an important military centre, with airports and training facilities. The city is also on a major road linking Kyiv with the second largest city, Kharkiv.

UkraineThe Defense Ministry said “the time between the alarm and the deadly missile attack was so short that everyone had time to evacuate to bomb shelters.”

As the rescue operation got underway, Zelenskyy “ordered a full and prompt investigation into all circumstances” of the attack. The defense ministry said 25 people had been rescued, including 11 pulled from the ruins of the institute.

“The Russian scum will definitely pay for this attack,” Zelenskyy said in a video statement, repeat recent calls for Ukraine’s Western partners to urgently provide more military aid to Kyiv and lift restrictions on long-range weapons.

Kyiv wants to use the American Atacms, British Storm Shadow and French Scalp missiles, all of which have ranges and capabilities far beyond most Ukrainian weapons, to strike military targets inside Russia and undermine its ability to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and terrorize its population.

These targets included missile launch sites, command and control centers, and weapons depots.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that during the Ukrainian delegation’s visit to Washington, he presented US officials with a list of key targets in the hope of winning their approval.

Russian army of “Z-bloggers” applauded the attack. “Based on the video stream from Poltava… the Russian attack on the local communications training center was highly effective,” said the military analysis blog Rybar, founded by a former employee of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Videos shared on Ukrainian and Russian social media channels showed a seven-story building with a large hole through most of the top floors in one wing, and windows and walls blown out in other wings. Photos showed multiple bodies lying on the ground in an area littered with rubble and covered in dust.

“More than 300 people: basically a battalion is lost. And as far as I understand, they are not conscripts, but highly qualified military professionals,” Yuri Podolyaka, a pro-Kremlin video blogger of Ukrainian origin, told his 3 million subscribers on Telegram. “This is a very painful loss for the enemy. No wonder there is such a hysterical reaction,” he wrote.

Some Ukrainian soldiers and lawmakers questioned Kiev leaders after the devastating attack.

“This is not the first time Russia has targeted densely populated facilities,” wrote a former Ukrainian officer who runs the Frontelligence Insight analysis group. “It seems that many generals have not learned some basic lessons, even in the third year of the war.”

“We continue to call on everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terrorism: Ukraine needs air defense and missile systems now, not in storage,” Zelenskyy said. “Unfortunately, every day of delay means more lives lost.”

Cartography by Aditi Bhandari