Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers killed in military barracks hit by Russia: Report

A Russian mortar attack on the Ukrainian town of Makariv in the Kyiv region killed dozens of soldiers, and troops struck a Ukrainian military barracks in the southern city of Mykolaiv, witnesses told AFP on Saturday while a rescue operation was underway.

“No fewer than 200 soldiers were sleeping in the barracks" when Russian troops struck early Friday, a Ukrainian serviceman on the ground, 22-year-old Maxim, told AFP without providing his last name. “At least 50 bodies have been recovered, but we do not know how many others are in the rubble," he said. Another soldier estimated that the bombing could have killed around 100 people. Authorities have not yet released an official death toll.

Earlier, seven people were killed and five hospitalised on Friday due to mortar attack, local police said in a statement on Saturday.

“As a result of enemy shelling of Makariv, seven civilians were killed,” the statement said. Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry reported the use of hypersonic Kinzhal missiles in Ukraine, according to an IFX report. Additionally, it said that the radio reconnaissance centres of Ukraine’s military has been destroyed near Ukraine’s Odessa.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have fired at eight cities and villages in the eastern Donetsk region, using aviation, rocket and heavy artillery.

Meanwhile, nine people were killed and 17 wounded in shelling of the suburbs of the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Friday, deputy mayor Anatoliy Kurtiev said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The military has since declared a 38-hour curfew in Zaporizhzhia, which was being attacked by Russian forces with mortars, tanks, helicopters and rocket systems, Kurtiev said in an online post.

On Friday, Vladimir Putin appeared at a huge flag-waving rally at a packed Moscow stadium and lavished praise on his troops fighting in Ukraine, three weeks into the invasion. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow, saying Russia would otherwise need generations to recover from losses suffered during the war.

• Dozens
• Kyiv
• Makariv
• Russia
• Ukrainian soldiers
• killed
• military barracks
• Mykolaiv