Russian Missiles Hit Poltava, Ukraine, Killing More Than 50

Russian missiles struck a military academy in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday only minutes after air-raid alarms blared, killing more than 50 people, wounding many others and underscoring Moscow’s superior firepower in one of the war’s deadliest attacks. Ukraine’s president said a hospital also was hit.

Rescue workers in the eastern city of Poltava described scenes of dismemberedbodies pulled from the rubble of the school, which Ukrainian news outlets identified as the Poltava Institute of Military Communications.

The entire area was littered with shattered glass, with nearby high-rises missing windows and doors. By some accounts more than 200 people suffered injuries, overwhelming hospitals.

Denys Kliap, the 26-year-old director of Free and Unbreakable, a volunteer emergency response team, was asleep when the first blast rocked him out of bed. “As soon as it happened, we went straight to the site,” Mr. Kliap said. “When we arrived, the only thing I remember was the pile of bodies scattered all over the territory of the institute.”

While he has seen many horrific scenes, the devastation after Tuesday’s strikes was shocking, he said. He recalled bodies being pulled from the rubble “without legs, others without arms, some even without heads.”

The strike was a demoralizing blow to Ukraine, coming as its troops have been retreating from relentless Russian advances along the war’s main front in the Donbas region.