September 2024 Poltava strike | |
---|---|
Part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine | |
Type | Missile strike |
Location | |
Date | 3 September 2024 |
Executed by | Russian Armed Forces |
Casualties | 74 missing and killed 328 injured |
On 3 September 2024, two Russian missiles hit a branch of the Military Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technologies and a nearby hospital in Poltava, Ukraine, [1] killing at least 59 [2] and injuring at least 328. [3] According to president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a building in the military institute was "partially destroyed". [4] It was the deadliest attack in Poltava Oblast during the Russo-Ukrainian War. [1]
The attack occurred shortly after 09:08 and damaged ten other buildings. [5] According to authorities (as of 3 October), 59 people were known to have died and more than 300 were injured. [2] Additionally, 16 were reported missing (on 5 September, when 54 people were known to be killed). [6]
The Office of the Prosecutor General said that "One of the buildings of the Institute of Communications, a hospital and nearby houses were partially destroyed". [7] Emergency services rescued 25 people, including 11 who were trapped under the rubble of the affected buildings. [8] The Ukrainian defence ministry said that the interval between activation of air raid sirens and the arrival of the missiles was too short to allow people to safely reach bomb shelters. [9] The ministry added that the attack occurred while classes were ongoing. [10]
President Zelenskyy ordered an investigation into the attack, [8] and called on Western nations to ensure the arrival of missiles and air defence systems. He also said Russia will "surely pay" for the attack. [11] Philip Pronin, the governor of Poltava Oblast, announced three days of mourning beginning on 4 September. [12]
Maryana Bezuhla, a deputy in the Verkhovna Rada, accused Ukraine's military leadership of putting soldiers in danger. [5]
The Russian defence ministry said that it had struck a drone and electronic warfare training center during the attack. [13]
The attack was condemned by Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, with President Joe Biden describing the incident as "deplorable". [5]
During the southern Ukraine offensive of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city of Odesa and the surrounding region have been the target of shelling and air strikes by Russian forces on multiple occasions since the conflict began, fired predominantly from Russian warships situated offshore in the Black Sea. The city has also been targeted by Russian cruise missiles.
There have been attacks in mainland Russia as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. The main targets have been the military, the arms industry and the oil industry. Many of the attacks have been drone strikes, firebombing, and rail sabotage. The Ukrainian intelligence services have acknowledged carrying out some of these attacks. Others have been carried out by anti-war activists in Russia. There have also been cross-border shelling, missile strikes, and covert raids from Ukraine, mainly in Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk oblasts. Several times, Ukrainian-based paramilitaries launched incursions into Russia, captured border villages and battled the Russian military. These were carried out by units made up mainly of Russian emigrants. While Ukraine supported these ground incursions, it denied direct involvement.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have launched several missile attacks over the city of Dnipro in Ukraine. These have led to dozens of fatalities and over a hundred injuries among the civilian population.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military have carried out deliberate attacks against civilian targets and indiscriminate attacks in densely-populated areas. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says the Russian military exposed the civilian population to unnecessary and disproportionate harm by using cluster bombs and by firing other weapons with wide-area effects into civilian areas, such as missiles, heavy artillery shells and multiple launch rockets. As of 2024, the attacks had resulted in the UN-documented deaths of between 11,000 and estimated 40,000 dead civilians. On 22 April 2022, the UN reported that of the 2,343 civilian casualties it had been able to document, it could confirm 92.3% of these deaths were as a result of the actions of the Russian armed forces.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 24 February 2022, when Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine, to 7 April 2022 when fighting focused away from the north and towards the south and east of Ukraine.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 8 April 2022, when the area of heavy fighting shifted to the south and east of Ukraine, to 28 August 2022, the day before Ukraine announced the start of its Kherson counteroffensive.
Russia launched waves of missile and drone strikes against energy in Ukraine as part of its invasion. From 2022 the strikes targeted civilian areas beyond the battlefield, particularly critical power infrastructure, which is considered a war crime. By mid-2024 the country only had a third of pre-war electricity generating capacity, and some gas distribution and district heating had been hit.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 12 November 2022, following the conclusion of Ukraine's Kherson and Kharkiv counteroffensives, to 7 June 2023, the day before the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive began. Russia continued its strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure while the battle of Bakhmut escalated.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 8 June 2023, when the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive began, to 31 August 2023.
On 5 October 2023, the Russian Armed Forces launched an Iskander ballistic missile at residents gathered in a memorial service at a shop and cafe in Hroza, Kupiansk Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, killing 59 and injuring at least 7 others. Among those killed in the airstrike was a six-year-old boy. The attack took place as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 1 September to 30 November 2023 during the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Events in the year 2024 in Ukraine.
In the early morning hours of 29 December 2023, Russia launched what was seen to be the largest wave of missiles and drones yet seen in the Russo-Ukrainian War, with hundreds of missiles and drones hitting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities across the country. At least 58 people were reported to have been killed in the attacks, while 160 others were injured.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 1 December 2023 to 31 March 2024.
On 6 March 2024, a Russian missile exploded in Odesa, Ukraine near a meeting between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, killing five people.
The Russian Armed Forces have launched several rocket attacks on Chernihiv, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 July 2024.
A massive missile attack on Ukraine occurred on 8 July 2024 during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Kropyvnytskyi, and Pokrovsk came under fire from more than forty missiles of the Russian military. In total, at least 47 people were killed and about 170 were injured. In Kyiv, strikes damaged residential buildings and infrastructure, notably including the Okhmatdyt children's hospital, the country's largest, which killed two adults. The city's Artem military plant was also hit. The international community condemned the attacks. The Security Service of Ukraine defined Russia's attack on the Okhmatdyt children's hospital as a war crime and initiated criminal proceedings into the matter. Human Rights Watch also wrote that the strike against the children’s hospital should be investigated as a war crime.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 1 August 2024 to the present day.
On the morning of 26 August 2024, Russia carried out its largest series of missile and drone attacks against Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, targeting multiple large and important cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kremenchuk, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Kropyvnytskyi, Khmelnytskyi, Stryi, and Kryvyi Rih. The attacks resumed on the night of 26 August and into the morning of 27 August.
The strike hit the Institute of Communications, a military academy in Poltava in eastern Ukraine, President Zelensky said in a video posted to his Telegram channel.