A minute later, without warning, two Russian Iskander missiles hit the Military Institute of Telecommunications in Poltava, central Ukraine, on Tuesday 3 September at around 9:10 a.m. (8:10 a.m. in Paris). Several hundred people were at the site of the establishment. Shielded from view by trees, the U-shaped building appears largely destroyed on one side. The buildings and houses lining the four sides of the institute remained standing, but the force of the explosion blew out many windows, doors and walls. Rescue teams helped local residents after dark. A hospital was also hit.
The human toll of this attack, one of the deadliest in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022, was, on Tuesday afternoon, at least 51 dead and more than two hundred wounded, but it should “Oh, grow up” This was once again the case, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleiba, whose father is from Poltava and who took part in a crisis meeting in kyiv on Tuesday morning.
The subject is tragic and delicate: among the victims there are soldiers. “We lost brave Ukrainians, our brothers and sisters, soldiers”The Ukrainian armed forces confirmed this. And of all ages, because in these times of war, the Institute, founded in the 1960s to train military telecommunications specialists, offered cutting-edge education as well as short courses for new recruits.
“Our classes started at 8:20 am in the large teaching building”Nikita, 26, a professional developer, told us on Tuesday. He was arrested on a street in Odessa, the major Black Sea port, on June 11, following the new mobilization law. Recruited against his will, he was assigned this summer to the 3rdmy tank brigade of the Ukrainian army, has been undergoing a month of training at this school since August 27, together with other soldiers from several of the most prestigious brigades. He himself was housed at the base, in one of the school’s three barracks.
Traumatized rescuers
“An alert sounded at school and on our phones, he continues. A minute and a half later, at 9:10 a.m., a first missile hit the building. Then, one or two seconds later, a second missile hit.”says the soldier. “It was the people who were outside and on the stairs of the lower floors who were killed, The young soldier explains, still in shock.because the missile hit the third floor level. »
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