Moscow: Bombed academy was preparing to attack civilians

Moscow. Russia said on Wednesday that ballistic missiles Iskander-M which was launched on Tuesday in the Ukrainian city of Poltava destroyed a military training center run by foreign instructors, which trained specialists in communications and electronic warfare for the Ukrainian army.

The Russian Ministry of Defense added in its daily war report that at this center – the Poltava Military Institute of Communications – drone operators were being trained. are used in attacks against civilian targets.

According to data from the Ukrainian emergency services, at least 53 people were killed and 298 injured as a result of this attack, one of the deadliest since the beginning of hostilities in February 2022.

The commission set up by President Volodymyr Zelensky has yet to clarify the circumstances of the attack and, above all, answer the question that has been causing outrage on Ukrainian social media since Tuesday: is it true that the high number of victims was due to the fact that the students were lined up on an esplanade in front of the main building of the institute, at a ceremony to mark the start of the new school year?

Many in Ukraine are demanding that the person responsible for such negligence be punished. It is noteworthy that on Tuesday, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrskyi, dismissed Roman Gladky, who was the chief of staff of the unmanned aerial systems forces, a newly created branch of the army to coordinate the use of drones on the battlefield, whose operators are trained at the Military Institute of Communications in Poltava.

On the other hand, in what is being announced as a thorough reshuffle of the Ukrainian government, which will involve the replacement of half of the ministers – according to the head of the majority bloc in the legislature, Sluga Naroda (Servant of the People), David Arajamia – the Verkhovna Rada yesterday approved four resignations, rejected two and one more, that of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, was not voted on due to lack of time.

It is assumed that Denys Shmyhal will remain as Prime Minister and, based on President Zelensky’s statements about give new strength As for Ukrainian institutions, changes are expected in the way ministries operate, although it is not ruled out that some may merge and others may emerge, all in order to reduce expenses and meet other needs arising from the war.

Although it is not excluded that some ministers will be relocated to the cabinet, on Wednesday the Rada deputies accepted the resignations of Olga Stefanyshina, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration; Oleksandr Kamyshin, Minister of Strategic Industries; Denys Maliuska, Minister of Justice; and Ruslan Strilets, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

The resignations of Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, and Vitaliy Koval, head of the State Property Fund, were rejected by just a few votes.

The new composition of the government, according to the Ukrainian press, will be announced on Thursday and that of some ministers on Friday, but many analysts in that country believe that, in light of the news coming from the battlefields, the issue is of less and less interest to the population.

They also believe that the government has lost influence over time and that real power is concentrated in the Presidential Office, which reports directly to Zelensky.