Death toll from Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Poltava rises to 55

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - The death toll from Tuesday’s Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Poltava rose to 55, the country’s emergency service said on Thursday.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a statement on Telegram that the number of those killed in the attack on the city’s educational institution increased to 55, adding that 328 others were injured.

“The six-story building of the educational building was partially destroyed. Probably, there are still people under the rubble,” the statement further said.

Search and rescue efforts are still ongoing, it added.

On Tuesday, citing preliminary reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that 41 people were killed and over 180 were injured in the attack.

Zelenskyy said two ballistic missiles hit a building of the Military Institute of Communications and a nearby hospital.

On the same day, Poltava Governor Filip Pronin said on Telegram that the region will observe three days of mourning, set to end on Friday.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry said that the country's armed forces launched a strike "on the 179th Joint Training Center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the city of Poltava."

It claimed that the center was being used to train "specialists in communications and electronic warfare from all formations and military units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces."