Russian air strikes targeting Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine

“We can’t warn of air strikes because this cyclone (of bombing) hits before we can. The (warning) message and bombings happen simultaneously,” Kim said on social media.

The governor did not give details of the extent of the damage or the number of potential casualties.

At the same time, witnesses reported varying estimates of the death toll from the bombing of six missiles that targeted a military barracks in the north of this city on Friday.

On Saturday morning, Vitaly Kim announced in a video posted on Facebook that the rescue operation was still underway.

AFP reporters at the scene saw three dead, including a torn body pulled from the rubble where rescuers were working. A survivor was also found.

According to the soldier Evgenich at the site, 200 young soldiers were present in this barracks and “at least 50 bodies were recovered” from the rubble.

A colleague estimated that the death toll might reach 100.

“We are continuing to count, but it is impossible to know because of the condition of the bodies,” a rescue worker told AFP.

Ukrainian media quoted the mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Senkevich as saying that the city, which had a population of about half a million people before the war, was bombed from the neighboring Kherson region under Russian control.

Mykolaiv is a strategic city because it is the last before the city of Odessa on the Black Sea coast.