LVIV, Ukraine – A Russian missile attack on a large Ukrainian military facility near the border with NATO member Poland on Sunday killed 35 people and wounded 134, a Ukrainian official said.
Britain said the incident, just 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border, marked a “significant escalation” of the conflict. US President Joe Biden has said NATO will defend every inch of its territory if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spills over into member states of the Western defence alliance.
Ukraine said foreign military instructors have previously worked at the Yavoriv International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, but a NATO official said there were no personnel from the alliance there. It was not immediately clear whether any non-NATO states might have representatives there.
Regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said Russian planes fired around 30 rockets at the Yavoriv International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, adding that some were intercepted before they hit. At least 35 people were killed and 134 wounded, he said.
Reuters was not able to verify his statement.
The 360 square-km facility less than 25 km from the Polish border, is one Ukraine’s biggest and the largest in the western part of the country.
The Kremlin did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the reported missile strike so close to the border with NATO, and a short video briefing by Russia’s defense ministry spokesman on Sunday made no mention of such an attack.
Nineteen ambulances with sirens on were seen by Reuters driving from the direction of the Yaroviv facility after the reported strike and black smoke rose from the area.
“Russia has attacked the International Center for Peacekeeping & Security near Lviv. Foreign instructors work here. Information about the victims is being clarified,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an online post.
The United States said it would rush up to $200 million in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, where officials have pleaded for more military aid.
Ukraine, whose aspirations to join NATO are a major irritant to Russian President Vladimir Putin, held most of its drills with countries in the Western defence alliance at the base before the invasion. The last major exercises were in September.
In the weeks before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the Ukrainian military trained there, but according to Ukrainian media, all foreign instructors left the training ground in mid-February, while leaving all the equipment.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched by Putin on Feb. 24, has sent more than 2.5 millions fleeing across borders and trapped thousands of people in besieged cities.
While Western nations have sought to isolate Putin by imposing harsh sanctions, the United States and its allies are concerned to avoid NATO being drawn into the conflict. “There are no NATO personnel in Ukraine,” the NATO official said.
The mayor of another city in western Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, said Russian troops also continued to hit its airport, with no initial reports of casualties.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian troops are trying to surround Ukrainian forces as they advance from the port of Mariupol in the south and the second city Kharkiv in the north, the UK Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian forces they face a fight to the death if they try to occupy the capital Kyiv.
“If they decide to carpet bomb and simply erase the history of this region… and destroy all of us, then they will enter Kyiv. If that’s their goal, let them come in, but they will have to live on this land by themselves,” Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
The president, who has repeatedly appeared on social media from the capital, said some small towns no longer existed in the third week of Russian attacks, the biggest assault on a European country since World War Two.
323 PINOYS EVACUATED
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said 323 Filipinos have been evacuated from Ukraine since the invasion.
Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said 173 Filipinos were repatriated from the eastern European country, including 52 who arrived Saturday, while 150 were evacuated from Ukraine and are staying in nearby countries while their repatriation to Manila are being processed.
“A total of 323 Filipinos have been assisted as of 9 p.m., March 12,” Arriola, who is spearheading the repatriation efforts, said.
At the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the DFA said there were about 380 Filipinos in Ukraine and 8,000 in Russia.
Last week, the DFA raised the crisis alert level in Ukraine to 4, enforcing the mandatory evacuation and repatriation of Filipinos. — Reuters and Ashzel Hachero
