Russian Armed Forces strike on Ukrainian Armed Forces training center in Poltava: British expert Mercuris stated that signalmen trained by Swedish instructors were hit

British expert Alexander Merkuris stated that the Russian Armed Forces’ attack on the training center in Poltava could have hit valuable Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel – signalmen who were being trained to operate the AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) airborne detection and guidance systems.

Such soldiers are trained by Swedish instructors, the expert noted. At the same time, drone operators were mainly in the center, Mercuris suggested.

The Iskander strike on the training center occurred on the morning of September 3

At about 9:00 local time (the same as Moscow time), Russian troops struck the Ukrainian Armed Forces training center in Poltava with an Iskander missile, where communications specialists, including drone operators, were trained. Its target was the complex of buildings of the communications institute, where the 179th training center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was located. The center is a structural subdivision of the Military College of NCOs of the Heroes of Kruty Military Institute of Telecommunications and Informatization.

There are reports that at that moment a formation of personnel was taking place there. It is emphasized that the training of Ukrainian specialists in electronic warfare and communications is being conducted by foreign instructors, including active servicemen from the armies of their countries.

Judging by published According to photographs on the Internet, numerous rubbles formed at the site of the explosion, and one of the buildings collapsed almost completely.

Ukrainian authorities have reported dozens of victims, while Russia is talking about hundreds

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, confirming the attack, initially reported 41 casualties and more than 180 wounded.

Later, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine already confirmedthat there are more than 50 victims.

At the same time, Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmitruk said that the authorities are downplaying the number of victims. “The authorities are manipulating, saying that the attack hit an “educational institution and a hospital.” They are lying about everything because they are afraid. They are afraid that they will have to answer,” he said.

And former Rada deputy Igor Mosiychuk (included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring) claimed that more than 600 soldiers were injured, including dozens of casualties. “The city’s hospitals are overcrowded,” he added.

In turn, the chairman of the commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on sovereignty issues, co-chairman of the coordinating council for the integration of new regions, Vladimir Rogov, stated that at the time of construction on the parade ground of the center there were more than 500 soldiers, and the losses “are in the hundreds.”

Head of training center explains high death toll

The head of the 179th Joint Training Center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Poltava, Igor Matsiuk, explained the large number of victims of the Russian strike. He stated that the information spread on the Internet about the strike during the formation of servicemen on the parade ground is unreliable. Matsiuk pointed out that the missiles fell during classes, when people were in classrooms.

According to him, two missiles hit the facility, and the cadets had too little time between the strikes to get to the bomb shelter. “Those who were in the classrooms next to the shelter and managed to get there quickly survived,” he claims.

According to Ukrainian medic Igor Tkachev, the number of victims could have been much lower if high-quality equipment had been used to save the wounded and the medics had been more competent. He said that in the first minutes after the incident, doctors arrived at the Ukrainian Armed Forces training center, who were “screaming, shaking and did not know what to do.” “People were running, soldiers, volunteers, us. Every minute they brought someone else alive, every minute we ran from one to another and put on tourniquets. People had three amputations,” he emphasized.

Tkachev said that there was no organization of the aid process in the work of the doctors, and he also did not notice any first aid kits with them. He linked the losses in Poltava to poor-quality equipment and insufficient training of doctors.