At least 41 people were killed and more than 180 injured Tuesday in a Russian missile strike on a military training facility and nearby hospital in central Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Two ballistic missiles hit an “educational institution” and a nearby hospital in the city of Poltava, 190 miles southeast of the capital Kyiv, Zelenskyy said in a video post on the Telegram messaging app. He added that one of the buildings of the Poltava Military Institute of Communication was partially destroyed.
NBC News was able to geolocate a video showing bomb damage to the 179th Training Center of Signal Forces for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Poltava.
NBC News could not verify the death toll. Russia has not commented on the incident, but some of the country’s influential military bloggers had reported a deadly strike on a military site hours before the Ukrainian announcement.
It appears to be one of the deadliest strikes on Ukraine since the beginning of the war some two-and-a-half years ago. A missile attack on the capital Kyiv in July also killed 41 people.
“Poltava is experiencing a terrible day today,” Ukraine’s ministry of defense said in a statement Tuesday, adding that “one of the city’s educational institutions” was hit.
“The time interval between the alarm and the arrival of the deadly missiles was so short that it caught people at the moment of evacuation to the bomb shelter,” the ministry added.
Some people were trapped under the rubble, Zelenskyy said, but many were rescued.
“I have ordered a full and prompt investigation into all the circumstances of what happened,” Zelenskyy said. “All necessary services are involved in the rescue operation.”
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a separate post that rescuers had contained the fire and were continuing to clear the rubble, adding that 11 people were pulled from under the debris.
This is a developing news story, please check back for updates.
Caroline Radnofsky contributed.