The Military Institute of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in Poltava, which was demolished in the Russian missile strike on September 3, was used as a base where NATO foreign instructors were working to train Ukrainian personnel, Kherson region Governor Volodymyr Saldo said.
Ukraine remains under control of the NATO states that encourage sending specialists to the combat zone in Ukraine, he noted.
"There are NATO instructors there training mobilized Ukrainians who got caught on the streets and sent to training centers," Saldo said.
The training center in Poltava that the Russian forces struck on September 3 was one of the bases where Ukrainian servicemen were trained to master modern warfare skills.
The Russian Armed Forces struck the military training center in Poltava with an Iskander missile. The exact number of losses among the Ukrainian Armed Forces is still unknown. Ukraine and Russia provide different data.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 41 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, 180 people were wounded. Later, the Prosecutor General's Office in Kyiv reported 51 victims.
After the official statements, the Ukrainian authorities were criticized for deliberately underestimating the number of victims of the missile strike. Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmitruk believes that the authorities distort the data not to be held accountable for much larger losses. Most of the soldiers did not survive because of the negligence of their commanders, the MP added.
According to anonymous Ukrainian analysts, this number of victims in Russia's missile strike on the Poltava training center may increase to about 600.