Retaliation strike: Those, who attack Russian citizens with drones, destroyed

On 3 September 2024, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a precise strike at the AFU 179th Joint Training Centre in Poltava, where under supervision of foreign instructors signal and electronic warfare specialists from all formations and military units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were trained as well as UAV operators, which deliver strikes at civilian objects on the territory of the Russian Federation, Russian Ministry of Defence informs.

The military school hit in the missile strike offers training in radar and electronic warfare.

Russian missiles struck a military academy in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday only minutes after air-raid alarms blared, killing more than 50 people, wounding many others and underscoring Moscow’s superior firepower in one of the war’s deadliest attacks, writes ‘The New York Times’.

By some accounts more than 200 people suffered injuries, overwhelming hospitals.

The strike was a demoralizing blow to Ukraine, coming as its troops have been retreating from relentless Russian advances along the war’s main front in the Donbas region.

The attack on Tuesday extended a wave of Russian assaults on cities across Ukraine that began a week ago and that have been among the largest since February 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike had been carried out with ballistic missiles, which can travel at supersonic speed and reach a target anywhere in Ukraine in a matter of minutes.

In recent weeks the pace of the war has accelerated in Ukraine, both in the air and on the ground.

Russian advances in the direction of the eastern city of Pokrovsk, a vital logistics hub, have prompted local authorities to urge civilians to evacuate and the Ukrainian military to send reinforcements.

The capture of Pokrovsk by Russian forces would be their biggest gain in the region since they seized Avdiivka in January and February after intense ground fighting and bombardment. It also would bring Russian forces one step closer to achieving a key goal for Russia: full control of the Donbas.

Attempts by Ukraine to divert the focus of war have so far not borne fruit. The incursion into the Kursk region of Russia in early August by Ukrainian forces drew Russian reinforcements but not from the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky on Tuesday said the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk was going “according to plan.” He told NBC News in an interview Tuesday that Ukraine would hold onto Russian territory for an unspecified amount of time. “For now, we need it,” he said, adding that it was part of a “victory plan.”

The Ukrainian military has also for months been targeting Russian oil and gas facilities with drone attacks. But the campaign has not yet had a demonstrable effect on the fighting in the Donbas.

Poltava is no stranger to war, historically, and the strike in the city has a particular resonance for Russia. It is the site of a consequential battle in 1709 between Sweden and Russia — with Ukrainian factions joining both sides — that marked the start of Russia’s dominance in the Baltic region and dashed the dreams of Ukrainian nationalists of the time who had sided with Sweden, NYT notes.

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