Ukraine suffered one of the deadliest attacks of the war, when a Russian missile attack hit a military training facility and a nearby hospital in the central city of Poltava, killing at least 51 people and wounding more than 200.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that according to preliminary information, two ballistic missiles had “partially destroyed” one of the buildings at the Poltava Military University of Communications, leaving people under the rubble.
Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, called the incident a “stunning tragedy for the whole of Ukraine” and wrote that “the enemy attacked an educational institution and a hospital” in a post on X. Some people left concerned messages on the educational institution's Facebook page, seeking information about their loved ones.
President Zelenskiy blamed Russia but said he had ordered a “full and immediate investigation into all the circumstances of what happened.”
The attack sparked outrage on Ukrainian social media, with unconfirmed reports saying it targeted an outdoor military ceremony or roll call, with many blaming officials for allowing the ceremony to go ahead despite threats of a Russian attack.
The Ukrainian army confirmed that a serviceman was killed in the airstrike and said it was investigating whether enough measures had been taken to protect those inside the compound. It said it would take measures to prevent a recurrence.
Late on Tuesday, it was announced that four Ukrainian cabinet ministers had resigned, ahead of an expected cabinet reshuffle.
Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Olga Stefanishina, Minister of Strategic Industry Oleksandr Kamyshin (who played a key role in expanding arms production), Minister of Justice Denis Mariuska and Minister of Environment Ruslan Strylets have all submitted their resignations.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby condemned Tuesday's attack as “another horrific reminder of President Putin's brutality against the Ukrainian people” and vowed the White House would send more aid to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Poltava Governor Philip Pronin said the regional government could not release further details about the circumstances of the attack for “security reasons.”
“Our enemies are doing everything they can to inflict further pain on Ukraine and confuse the Ukrainian people. Trust only reliable sources,” he added.
Maria Bezgra, a member of parliament who regularly criticizes the country's military leadership, accused officials of putting soldiers at risk by allowing such incidents to happen. “These tragedies are happening again and again. When will they stop?” she wrote in Telegram.
Poltava is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Kiev, far from the front line. Photos posted on Ukrainian social media showed bodies, some in uniform, lying on the ground covered in dust and rubble. Two nearby high-rise buildings showed extensive damage, including one where the exterior wall had been blown away, exposing at least the fifth floor.
With fears that people might still be buried under the rubble, emergency services spokesman Oleksandr Kornziyi said on television that “a moment of silence will be observed every 15-20 minutes to hear the voices of those buried under the rubble.”
“The time between the sound of air raid sirens and the arrival of the deadly missiles was extremely short, and they struck people just as they were taking refuge in their shelters,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Rescue and medical teams rescued 25 people at the scene, 11 of whom were pulled from the rubble, he added.
The identities of the victims were not immediately released, but Serhiy Beskrestnov, a prominent Ukrainian Telegram blogger followed by many radio, communications and electronic warfare experts in the Ukrainian military, posted a message of condolence to “my radio comrades.”
Russia's Telegram channel said the attack took place at a military training facility. It was not immediately clear how many of the victims were military and how many were civilians.
Russia has repeatedly attacked civilians throughout the two-and-a-half-year all-out war and has stepped up air strikes on Ukraine in recent weeks.
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Ukraine launched a major missile and drone attack on Kiev early on Monday, but most of it was thwarted by Ukraine's air defenses.
Two people, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed in the city of Zaporizhia on Monday night, the regional governor said.
Ukraine also attacked Russia over the weekend with more than 158 drones, destroying an oil refinery and a power plant near Moscow, and last week Russia was hit by its heaviest bombing raids to date.
Zelenskiy reiterated his calls for strengthening Western air defenses and urged allies to allow long-range weapons to be used for strikes deep into Russian territory to protect Ukraine.
“We keep saying to everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terrorism: air defense systems and missiles are not in some warehouse somewhere, they are needed in Ukraine.”
“Long-range strikes to protect us from Russian terrorism are needed now, not later. Unfortunately, even a day of delay will mean lost lives.”
The deadly attack came as President Vladimir Putin was receiving a red-carpet welcome in Mongolia on Tuesday after the country ignored calls to arrest him despite an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The visit will be the Russian president's first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since the court issued the warrant in March 2023. Prior to the visit, Ukraine had called on Mongolia to hand over Putin to the court in The Hague, and the EU had expressed concern that Mongolia might not enforce the warrant.
The ICC has accused Putin of involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine, and while member states are required to detain suspects if a warrant is issued, Mongolia needs to maintain ties with Russia and the ICC has no mechanism to enforce the warrant.
Putin was welcomed in the capital Ulaanbaatar's central square by an honor guard dressed in bright red and blue uniforms modelled on those of the bodyguards of Genghis Khan, the 13th-century ruler who founded the Mongol Empire.
