Two missiles hit the Military Institute of Telecommunications in Poltava, central Ukraine, and the hospital next door, on Tuesday 3 September at around 9:10 a.m. (8:10 a.m. in Paris). Several hundred people were said to be on the university grounds, a base hidden from view by trees and framed on four sides by buildings and houses. It was completely inaccessible on Tuesday evening.
The death toll was at least 51 on Tuesday night and more than two hundred injured, but it could “unfortunately it grows significantly”according to Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. It could also be the deadliest bombing in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Poltava, the regional capital of almost 300,000 inhabitants, welcomes everyone
year for many students, including those attending the Military Institute this academic year. “Our classes started at 8:20 am in the large teaching building”says Nikita, 26, a developer from Odessa who was recruited against his will on June 11, following the new mobilization law, and who had followed for exactly one week, on August 27, a month-long training course at this telecommunications school, with his colleagues of all ages. “An alert sounded at school and on our phones, he continues. Less
Two minutes later, a first missile hit the building. It was 9:10 in the morning. Then, one or two seconds later, a second missile hit.”says the recently mobilized soldier and intern in one of the school’s three barracks.
“Complete and rapid investigation”
Both strikes surprised the students who started them.
to take refuge, according to him, in a building other than the main one. ” This
They are the people who were outside and on the stairs of the
lower floors that were killed, explains the young soldierbecause the missile
hit at level 3my floor. “ He himself was already in the
crowd gathered on the ground floor. Only the young man’s right leg was left
The brown beard and blue eyes have been hit: he is pockmarked by the shards of glass from the exploded front door.
“I have ordered a full and prompt investigation into the circumstances of what happened” in Poltava, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video posted on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. Ukrainian military bloggers claimed on social media that the missiles had targeted an official outdoor military ceremony. “There had been no military meeting in the courtyard”However, our soldier, who joined the 3rd this summer, assures usmy tank brigade of the Ukrainian army.
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