Ukraine says soldiers among 51 killed in Poltava missile attack

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Ukraine says soldiers among 51 ******* in Poltava missile *******

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At least 51 people have been ******* and more than 200 others injured in a Russian missile strike on the city of Poltava, in central Ukraine.

A military communications institute and a nearby hospital were hit. Ukraine’s land forces confirmed that military personnel were ******* in the *******.

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

President Volodymyr Zelensky promised that what he called “Russian *****” would pay for the *******, 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 *******.

Teaching was in progress at the Poltava Military Communications Institute when the missiles hit, a later statement from Ukraine’s defence ministry said.

Earlier reports from Russian military bloggers had 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 (07:08 BST) and everyone headed to the shelter, the defence ministry added, and the explosions started a few minutes after the alarms.

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Emergency services were called to the scene of the strikes in Poltava

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told the BBC the two minutes between the air raid siren in Poltava and the missiles landing was “nothing”.

“You just imagine you’re on the sixth floor of some building and you need to run away downstairs. Is it realistic that you can do this in two minutes?” he said.

“Just imagine this life and like this several times per day. We can’t continue like this. It’s just not fair.”

In a statement on Telegram which confirmed the deaths of the military personnel, Ukraine’s land forces said an investigation was under way to establish whether enough was done to protect those in the facility the missile hit.

It confirmed additional measures to ensure safety at military facilities will be increased.

One Poltava resident, Olena Serdyuk, said: “The air raid alert started in just a minute, and then there were two explosions.

“At home, we immediately ran into the bathroom with the child, but then gathered ourselves”. She added that there is no ***** shelter “in our radius”, and it “takes a long time to run somewhere”.

Another local, Anastasiia Artyukh, heard “two very strong explosions” and called the situation “really scary”.

“There is a house nearby, everything was blown out, all the windows. We don’t have a basement in our house. So our only option was to sit [and wait].”

‘A cunning and cynical Russian strike,’ says governer

Poltava regional governor Philip Pronin called the ******* a “cunning and cynical Russian strike,” and later said that 15 people were still thought to be trapped under the rubble.

Mr Pronin said search groups were on site, and that 10 residential buildings had been damaged in the *******.

More details could not immediately be given due to security reasons, he said.

Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska

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calling the ******* “a stunning tragedy for all of Ukraine,” and added: “Russia is taking away the most valuable thing from us – life.”

In a video on the Ukrainian presidential website, President Zelensky said Russia would be held accountable for the strike.

In the clip,

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, Mr Zelensky said a “full and prompt” investigation had been ordered and that “all necessary services are involved in the rescue operation”.

He went on to say that Ukraine needed long-range air defence systems “that can protect us from Russian *******” and added that “every day of delay, unfortunately, means more lost lives”.

The ***’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned the “sickening act of aggression in ******’s abhorrent and ******** war in Ukraine,” and said “my thoughts are with all the victims and their loved ones.”

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that Vladimir ****** “knows no limits to brutality”.

There has also been criticism of the Ukrainian authorities in the aftermath of the *******.

Maria Bezugla, a Ukrainian MP who often criticizes the country’s military leadership, accused officials of putting soldiers in danger.

“These tragedies keep repeating themselves. When will it stop?” she wrote on Telegram.

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****** in Mongolia despite arrest warrant

The ******* on the military institute in Poltava came as Russian leader Vladimir ****** arrived in Mongolia –

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He was welcomed by Mongolia’s leader at a lavish ceremony in the ****** nation’s capital Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday.

Ahead of his visit, Ukraine had urged Mongolia to arrest Mr ******.

“We call on the Mongolian authorities to comply with the mandatory international arrest warrant and transfer ****** to the International ********* Court in the Hague,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Telegram.

The court alleged last year that the Russian president was responsible for war *******, focusing on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

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Poltava, located in central Ukraine, had a pre-war population of 300,000 and is located 300 kilometres (189 miles) east of Kyiv.

Founded in the 1960s, when Ukraine was still part of the USSR, the Poltava military communications institute trains telecommunications specialists.

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