Moscow’s forces have carried out a high-precision strike on a Ukrainian training center in the city of Poltava, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday. The facility was housing a number of foreign instructors who were training Kiev’s troops in communication, electronic warfare, and drone operation, according to Moscow.
The strike was initially reported by Ukrainian officials, who stated on Tuesday that two Russian Iskander ballistic missiles had hit the School of Military Communication and Information Technology, resulting in the nearly 300 casualties, including nearly 50 killed.
While the Russian Defense Ministry did not initially comment on the attack, it confirmed the strike in an update on Telegram on Wednesday. It said Russian forces had conducted “a high-precision strike on the 179th Joint Training Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Poltava” on September 3.
The ministry added that foreign instructors had been preparing specialists in communications and electronic warfare at the facility, as well as operators of unmanned aerial vehicles participating in strikes on civilian targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Previously, Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo had also claimed in an interview with RIA Novosti that the training center had effectively served as a base for NATO instructors, and was being used to train newly mobilized Ukrainians who had recently been “caught on the streets.”
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has used the attack on the center to demand more air-defense systems from his Western backers.
Meanwhile, the New York Times has claimed that the strike was a “demoralizing blow to Ukraine,” given how Kiev’s troops were already retreating from relentless Russian advances along the main front in Donbass.