Ukraine says soldiers among 51 killed in Poltava missile attack

BBC:

At least 51 people have been killed and 271 others injured in a Russian missile strike on the city of Poltava, in central Ukraine.

A military academy and a nearby hospital were hit. Ukraine’s land forces confirmed that military personnel were killed in the attack.

People did not have enough time to get to bomb shelters after the air raid alarm sounded, Ukraine’s ministry of defence said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky promised that what he called “Russian scum” would pay for the attack, and repeated calls for more air defences so that Ukraine could protect itself by carrying out its own long-range missile attacks. Moscow has not commented on the attack.

People nearby told us their windows were blown out by the force of the impact.

We met 26-year-old Mykyta Petrov, a cadet who only started at the Poltava Military Communications Institute two weeks ago.

He described the moment the attack unfolded just after 09:00 local time on Tuesday morning (06:00 GMT), saying the second missile hit just three seconds after the first.

“I ran outside, there was smoke and dust everywhere…lots of people were outside having a cigarette, and many were killed…”

He says that what he saw has affected him psychologically, that there was “too much blood, too many dead bodies.”

Earlier reports from Russian military bloggers suggested that cadets were gathered at a military parade being held at the institute, but the ministry confirmed there was no parade happening at the time of the strike.

Alarms sounded at 09:08 local time and everyone headed to the shelter, the defence ministry added. The explosions started a few minutes after the alarms.