Kyiv: The death toll from a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Poltava rose to 54 with nearly 300 wounded, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.
The strike hit the Poltava military communications institute, according to Ukrainian officials who did not specify how many of the victims were military or civilians.
“The death toll rises to 54 after the Russian strike on educational institution in Poltava. Another 297 people were injured,” Ukraine’s emergency services said.
Up to five people could be trapped under the rubble, it added, two days after two ballistic missiles hit the central city of Poltava, in one of one of the single deadliest strikes of the two-and-a-half-year war.
The attack triggered widespread condemnation, including from Washington which denounced it as “another horrific reminder of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s brutality.”
It also prompted criticism in Ukraine after unconfirmed reports said the strikes had targeted an outdoor military ceremony, with many blaming reckless behavior from officials who allowed the event to take place despite the threat of attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the strike.
Capture the Donbas region
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Moscow’s main Ukraine aim was to capture the Donbas region and that Russia’s army was “gradually” pushing back Kyiv’s forces from the Kursk region after their surprise incursion.
“The aim of the enemy was to make us worry... and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in the Donbas, the liberation of which is our main primary objective,” Putin said at a forum in Vladivostok, adding: “Our armed forces have stabilized the situation (in Kursk) and started gradually squeezing (the enemy) out from our territory.”
Toll in Russian strike on Ukraine’s Poltava rises to 54
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Toll in Russian strike on Ukraine’s Poltava rises to 54
- Putin says Russia’s ‘primary objective’ is to capture Ukraine’s Donbas region
Bangladesh begins exhuming mass grave from 2024 uprising
- The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police began exhuming on Sunday a mass grave believed to contain around 114 unidentified victims of a mass uprising that toppled autocratic former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year.
The UN-supported effort is being advised by Argentine forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, who has led recovery and identification missions at mass graves worldwide for decades.
The bodies were buried at the Rayerbazar Graveyard in Dhaka by the volunteer group Anjuman Mufidul Islam, which said it handled 80 unclaimed bodies in July and another 34 in August 2024 — all people reported to have been killed during weeks of deadly protests.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah said investigators believed the mass grave held roughly 114 bodies, but the exact number would only be known once exhumations were complete.
“We can only confirm once we dig the graves and exhume the bodies,” Ullah told reporters.
- ‘Searched for him’ -
Among those hoping for answers is Mohammed Nabil, who is searching for the remains of his brother Sohel Rana, 28, who vanished in July 2024.
“We searched for him everywhere,” Nabil told AFP.
He said his family first suspected Rana’s death after seeing a Facebook video, then recognized his clothing — a blue T-shirt and black trousers — in a photograph taken by burial volunteers.
Exhumed bodies will be given post-mortem examinations and DNA testing. The process is expected to take several weeks to complete.
“It’s been more than a year, so it won’t be possible to extract DNA from the soft tissues,” senior police officer Abu Taleb told AFP. “Working with bones would be more time-consuming.”
Forensic experts from four Dhaka medical colleges are part of the team, with Fondebrider brought in to offer support as part of an agreement with the UN rights body the OHCHR.
“The process is complex and unique,” Fondebrider told reporters. “We will guarantee that international standards will be followed.”
Fondebrider previously headed the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, founded in 1984 to investigate the tens of thousands who disappeared during Argentina’s former military dictatorship.
Authorities say the exhumed bodies will be reburied in accordance with religious rites and their families’ wishes.
Hasina, convicted in absentia last month and sentenced to death, remains in self-imposed exile in India.
