Screenshot: Russian Defence Ministry
A Russian missile strike on Tuesday that targeted a military training ground in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine killed at least six people and injured 10, according to the National Guard of Ukraine.
The strike occurred as servicemen were taking classes at a military unit’s firing range. The unit’s commander has been suspended from service and an official investigation has been launched in connection with the incident, the statement read.
“The command of the National Guard of Ukraine had previously developed protocols and issued all necessary orders for how to act in the face of the threat of airstrikes, as well as how to prevent security breaches and crowding”, the agency continued.
Though the National Guard’s announcement did not disclose the location of the attack, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed in a Telegram post that Russian forces had launched Iskander missiles at a training camp belonging to Ukraine’s 1st Special Forces Brigade in the city of Shostka, in the Sumy region.
The ministry claims that the attack killed “up to 70 servicemen, including up to 20 instructors” and blew up an ammunition depot and 10 pieces of equipment. The post was accompanied by an unverified aerial video showing dozens of soldiers walking through a wooded area, moments before an explosion and a large plume of smoke.
The Sumy region has been subject to frequent bombardment since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and also served as the launch point for a prolonged Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s adjacent Kursk region, which Russia is said to have recovered full control of at the end of April.
In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Volodymyr Artyukh, the head of the region’s military administration, following a deadly Russian missile strike on the regional capital of Sumy which killed at least 35 people and injured 129 more.
Hours after the attack, Artem Semenikhin, the mayor of Konotop, a city in the Sumy region, accused Artyukh of holding a military award ceremony and gathering Ukrainian servicemen from the 117th Brigade in Sumy on the same day as the strike.