A hair-raising cellphone video shows the moment a Russian actress was killed on stage by a Ukrainian missile while performing for Vladimir Putin’s marines in occupied Donetsk, in what has been described as a “revenge” attack.
The footage, released by the Russian news Telegram channel Astra, was recorded Sunday, showing 40-year-old Polina Menshikh singing and playing the guitar at a crowded cultural center in the village of Kumachovo, less than 40 miles from the front lines.
Moments later, a loud crash is heard, then the camera shakes and cuts to black, as a man’s voice exclaims in Russian, “F–k!”
Menshikh’s death has since been confirmed by the Russian state-run TASS news agency and by the Portal theater in St. Petersburg.
“It is with great pain that we inform you that Polina Menshikh… died yesterday at a performance in the Donbas as a result of shelling,” the theater said in a statement Monday.
The deadly strike was carried out by the Ukrainian military using a US-supplied HIMARS missile system, killing at least 25 Russian troops and injuring more than 100 others who attended Sunday’s military awards ceremony and concert celebrating Russia’s annual Day of Missile Forces and Artillery.
Robert Brovdi, commander of the Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit “Birds of Magyar,” wrote on his Telegram channel that Sunday’s attack was in “revenge for the 128th [Brigade].”
Brovdi was referring to the Nov. 3 Russian missile attack on a military awards ceremony in honor of Ukraine’s Artillery Forces Day, which claimed the lives of at least 20 soldiers from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a “tragedy that could have been avoided.”
The Ukrainian military on Wednesday officially confirmed the deadly revenge strike on Russia’s 810th Marine Brigade.
“Ukraine’s defense forces quickly determined the venue of the Russians’ celebration and warmly congratulated them,” the Strategic Communications Department of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated on Telegram.
Brovdi predicted that obituaries for the fallen Russian marines would soon be appearing in the port city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, where the 810th Brigade is headquartered.
A pro-Russian military blogger blasted Russia’s military brass, calling them “untaught idiots,” for failing to anticipate Ukraine’s payback and going forward with the awards ceremony so close to the front lines.
“The result is predictable — the enemy struck with HIMARS, including Russian actress Polina Menshikh, who was performing at that moment, who died,” the blogger griped.
“Almost two years of war, and the untaught idiots still do not know what to do and what not to do,” he added.