Ukraine updates: Poltava missile strike kills dozens

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that the Russian strike on the city of Poltava Tuesday killed at least 51 people, with more than 270 injured. 

Earlier, Poltava Governor Philip Pronin said on messaging platform Telegram that 49 had been killed, with 219 injured. 

"Search teams continue to dismantle the rubble at the site," Pronin said.

Nuclear power plants should never be a military target, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi said after a visit to a Russian nuclear plant in Kursk, and talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Safety concerns have been mounting since Ukraine launched its incursion into Kursk almost a month ago.

"I was shown some evidence of impact on the facility as well, which indicates that there is an issue there with the security and the nuclear safety of the plant. It is also something that I have been discussing with the government here," Grossi told DW on the sidelines of a press conference during a visit to Ukraine on Tuesday after he held talks with Zelenskyy.

Grossi elaborated on his meeting with Zelenskyy.

"He was interested in my news ... I think it's very clear for him. He understands very well and I don't think he disagrees at all on the fact that nuclear power plants should never be attacked," he added.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock strongly condemned Russia's attack on the Ukrainian city of Poltava. Officials have called it the single deadliest Russian strike this year.

"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin knows no limits to brutality," Baerbock said of the attack, which has killed more than 45 and injured over 200. "He should be held accountable."

Two members of the supervisory board of Ukraine's electricity grid operator, announced their resignation on Tuesday. 

Chairman of the board Daniel Dobbeni and board member Peder Andreasen said in a statement published on Telegram that they believed the decision to dismiss the head of Ukrenergo, Vadym Kudrytskyi, was "politically motivated" and "unacceptable." 

A move to dismiss Kudrytskyi was first reported by Forbes Ukraine and other outlets in Ukraine late last week; the Ukrenergo board voted by majority in favor of the move on Tuesday.

Dobbeni and Andreasen said they had submitted their resignation earlier on Wednesday. 

"We strongly believe that the decision on the early dismissal of the CEO of Ukrenergo is politically motivated and, based on the results of the presented report, there are no valid grounds for it," they said.

They argued it could also imperil support and cooperation with other European companies for Ukrenergo.

Russian attacks on Ukraine have often targeted its energy infrastructure and substations, with the government calling on the operator to improve security at such sites. 

Kudrytskyi also commented on the matter on Wednesday.

"The decision of the Supervisory Board to dismiss me has nothing to do with the security of Ukrenergo's substations," Kudrytskyi said, adding that while he couldn't go into details, aerial defense gear had been installed "almost at every substation." 

He said Ukrenergo had fallen victim of anonymous Telegram channels and some media outlets looking to discredit it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had ordered a "full and prompt investigation into all the circumstances of what happened," in the strike on Poltava Tuesday morning. 

This followed critical responses and comments circulating on Ukrainian social media, reacting to unconfirmed reports from Russian military bloggers saying the strike had targeted an outdoor military ceremony. Some blamed reckless behavior from officials for purportedly holding such an open-air event despite the threat of Russian attacks. 

The Poltava military communications institute, founded in the 1960s when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, focuses on training telecommunications specialists.

The Defense Ministry said that one of the institute's buildings was partially destroyed.

Poltava's Governor Philip Pronin said his administration could not yet provide more details of the circumstances of the strike for security reasons. 

"The enemy is using any means to bring Ukraine more pain and disorientate Ukrainians. Please only trust reliable sources," he said. 

The attack follows another recent scandal for Ukraine's military command, with Zelenskyy last week dismissing the head of the air force Mykola Oleshchuk following the crash of a US-made F-16 jet during a defensive operation. 

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel that at least 41 people had died and 180 were injured following a strike in the central Poltava region.

He reported that one Russian ballistic missile hit a hospital and the other an educational facility.

"One of the buildings of the [Poltava Military] Institute of Communications was partially destroyed. People found themselves under the rubble. Many were saved," Zelenskyy said.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said at least 25 people had been rescued from the rubble.

Romania's lower house of parliament has approved a draft law that would see one of its two operational Patriot missile defense systems donated to Kyiv.

The bill is expected to be approved by the Romanian Senate and then will be signed into law by President Klaus Iohannis.

Romania shares a 650-km (400 mile) border with Ukraine, and debris from destroyed Russian drones has increasingly been found within its territory.

The missile defense system is one of five that NATO has pledged to give Ukraine.

Physicist Alexander Shiplyuk, 57, is the latest scientist in Russian to be handed a hefty prison sentence following a treason conviction. The director of a top Siberian science institute and an expert in hypersonic missiles, Shiplyuk has been given a 15-year prison sentence.

Two of his colleagues, Anatoly Maslov and Valery Zvegintsev, have also been detained on similar charges. Maslov, 78, was given a 14-year sentence in May.

Lawyers for the latter two scientists said that the men did not even work on weapons development, and that they were being targeted for simply collaborating with foreign scientists on projects.

Russian President Vladimir Putin invited his Mongolian counterpart Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh to the next BRICS summit in October.

BRICS is a group of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. They are due to meet in the Russian city of Kazan.

Putin said he was eager to discuss economic cooperation with Mongolia at the meeting.

Some BRICS members have publicly called for an end to the war in Ukraine, but have done litte behind the scenes to push Putin to agree to a truce. Countries like India and Brazil have employed a loose bilateralism between Russia and the West.

Russia continued its stepped-up shelling campaign overnight, claiming two lives in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and another in the central city of Dnipro. One of those killed in Zaporizhzhia was an eight-year-old boy.

There were 313 attacks in Zaporizhzhia area in the past 24 hours, army officials there said. 

The military said it was about to shoot down 27 of 35 armed drones that Russia launched across Ukraine overnight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet with Mongolian President Uchnaagiin Chürelsüch on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin.

Putin traveled to the country at the Mongolian leader's invitation to strengthen cooperation between the two nations, according to a Kremlin statement.

Putin landed in the country on Monday evening. This is Putin's first visit to a member country of the International Criminal Court since it issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader in 2023.

Situated between Russia and China, Mongolia has close cultural links to Moscow and important trade links with China.

It has not condemned Russia's war in Ukraine and has abstained during votes on the conflict at the UN. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with the director of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday.

Rafael Mariano Grossi posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was on his way to the plant to continue assistance to avoid any nuclear accident.

Grossi will then travel to the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader said.

Grossi is visiting the nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia last month blamed each other after a fire broke out at the plant.

There was no reported harm to nuclear safety at the time, according to the IAEA.

Zaporizhzhia is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and has been under Russian control since 2022.

The plant has not produced any power for the last two years and all six of its reactors are in cold shutdown.

In a social media post, Zelenskyy said he did not see a safe way to regain control of the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

"It is safer for Ukraine to control the Zaporizhzhia plant, but so far, from the point of view of the battlefield, I do not see such possibilities, and those that probably exist, they are dangerous," he said. 

mk/rm (Reuters, dpa, AP, AFP)