9 dead and 57 injured as Russia attacks military base near Polish border, Ukrainian officials say

ONE RussiaUkrainian officials say a missile attack on a major Ukrainian military facility near the border with NATO member Poland on Sunday left nine people dead and 57 injured.

The country’s military instructors have previously worked at the base, Ukraine speak. It’s unclear if any were there at the time.

Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said the Russian plane fired about 30 rockets at the Yavoriv Center for International Peace and Security, adding that some were intercepted before they struck. .

The 360-square-kilometer facility, less than 25 kilometers from the Polish border, is one of Ukraine’s largest and the largest in the western part of the country.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the missile attack near the border with NATO.

Reuters saw 19 ambulances with sirens driving from the direction of the Yaroviv facility after the strike and black smoke billowing from the area.

“Russia attacked the International Center for Peace & Security near Lviv. Foreign instructors work here. Information about the victims is being clarified,” Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said. know in an online post.

A representative of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry told Reuters the ministry was still trying to determine if there were any foreign guides at the center at the time of the attack.

Ukraine held most of the exercises with NATO countries there before the invasion. The last major exercises are in September.

In the weeks before the Russian invasion on February 24, Ukrainian troops trained there, but according to Ukrainian media, all the foreign instructors left the training ground in mid-February, while leaving behind all of equipment.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched by President Vladimir Putin on February 24, has caused more than 2.5 million people to flee across the border and left thousands stranded in besieged cities.

While Western nations seek to isolate Putin by imposing harsh sanctions, the United States and its allies fear to avoid NATO being drawn into the conflict.

The mayor of another city in western Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, said Russian troops also continued to hit their airport, with no initial reports of casualties.

In eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces as they advance from Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday.

“Russian forces advancing from Crimea are attempting to pass Mykolaiv as they attempt to drive west towards Odessa,” the ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter.

The sirens of the airstrikes again woke the people in Kyiv on Sunday morning, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russian forces that they would fight to the death if they tried to capture the capital. dollar.

“If they decide to carpet-bomb and simply erase the history of this region … and destroy us all, then they will enter Kyiv. If that is their goal, let them in. , but they will have to live on this land, Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

Ukraine accused Russian forces on Saturday of killing seven civilians, including a child, in an attack on women and children trying to flee fighting near Kyiv.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report, and Russia was not immediately available for comment.

Moscow denies targeting civilians. It blames Ukraine for unsuccessful attempts to evacuate civilians from besieged cities, an allegation that Ukraine and its Western allies strongly deny.

“We still need to hold out. We still have to fight,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late on Saturday, the second day of his day.

The United States said it would rush to provide an additional $200 million in small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, where officials have begged for more military aid.

The Kremlin describes its actions as a “special operation” aimed at the demilitarization and “denuclearization” of Ukraine. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice that has raised fears of broader conflict in Europe.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the United States of escalating tensions and said the situation had been complicated by Western arms convoys to Ukraine that Russian forces considered “legitimate targets”.

In comments reported by the Tass news agency, Ryabkov made no specific threats. Any attack on such convoys before they reach Ukraine would risk widening the war.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talks between Moscow and Kyiv were continuing by video link, according to Russia’s RIA news agency. He gave no details, but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would not surrender or accept any ultimatum.

The Russian military has destroyed 3,687 Ukrainian military infrastructure to date, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was told by Russian news agencies on Sunday. His statement could not be independently verified.

The governor of the Donetsk region said the continued shelling complicates the delivery of aid into Mariupol. Fires raged in the western part of the city and dozens of apartment buildings were badly damaged, according to images taken by US private satellite company Maxar on Saturday.