Dozens killed, scores wounded in Russian strike on Ukraine's Poltava: Kiev

Two ballistic missiles blasted a military training facility and a nearby hospital in Ukraine, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 200 others, Ukrainian officials have said, in one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.

The strike hit the central-eastern city of Poltava, the capital of the region of the same name, partially destroying a building used by the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

"People found themselves under the rubble. Many were saved," Zelenskyy said in a video posted on his Telegram channel. He said he ordered “a full and prompt investigation."

Earlier, Ukraine's Defence Ministry said the strikes partially destroyed one of the institute's buildings.

"The time interval between the alarm and the arrival of the deadly missiles was so short that it caught people in the middle of evacuating to the bomb shelter," the ministry said.

Rescuers were still at work after saving 25 people, including 11 trapped under the rubble, according to the ministry.

Call for investigation and defences

Russian military bloggers had said that the strike targeted an outdoor ceremony.

Ukrainian MP Maria Bezugla, who regularly criticises Ukraine's military leadership, blamed high-ranking officials for endangering soldiers by allowing such events.

"These tragedies keep repeating themselves. When will it stop?" she posted on Telegram.

Zelenskyy ordered a prompt investigation into the circumstances of the strike and called for more air defence equipment from Ukraine's Western partners.