Nearly 50 dead, hundreds injured by Russian missile attacks in Ukraine

Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more were injured after Russian military forces on Tuesday launched missile strikes in the city of Poltava in east-central Ukraine , government officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he received "a preliminary report" stating that two ballistic missiles had struck the area.

"They targeted an educational institution, and a nearby hospital, partially destroying one of the telecommunications institute's buildings," he said.

Poltava Gov. Filip Pronon said at least 49 people had died and 219 people were injured in the strike as Ukraine's defense ministry said that the missile strike caught people as they tried to evacuate.

"We express our sincere condolences to the families of the victims. This tragedy is yet another evidence of the enemy's cunning, which stops at no crime to try to intimidate Ukrainians," the defense ministry said, calling it a "barbaric attack" while urging citizens "to remain calm and trust only official sources of information."

The ministry added that emergency personnel managed to save 25 people, 11 of whom were trapped underneath the debris.

Zelensky said "all necessary services" had been deployed to aid in the rescue operation, adding that he had ordered a "full and prompt investigation into all of the circumstances of what happened."

Ukraine's leader expressed his "deepest condolences" to families of the victims of Monday's Russian missile strikes in Poltava, a city of under 300,000 citizens located in Poltava Oblast in the east-central part of the country, about 75 miles from the Russian border in a region known to be a regular target of Russian missile or drone strikes.

"The Russian scum will surely pay for this strike," Zelensky said.

The strike followed Sunday's airstrikes also by Russian military forces on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv which injured more than 40 people including five children, officials said.

It arrived in the same timeframe and day the Russian military stated it had intercepted and destroyed all 158 Ukranian drones that were targeted for strikes on Russia.

On Tuesday, Zelensky made an appeal to world leaders with the power "to stop this terror" as he called for an influx of weaponry.

"Ukraine needs air defense systems and missiles now, not sitting in storage," he wrote saying such equipment is needed "now, not later" to protect Ukraine "from Russian terror."

"Every day of delay, unfortunately, means more lost lives," he said. "Eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken by Russia."