“I turn around, see the gate, and there are bodies lying. It’s just shocking that each subsequent person is even heavier,” one witness said.
“There were many wounded, and there was nowhere to load them. Some vans came and loaded people onto the floor,” another witness reported.
“I see 5-6 injured people, and I don’t know who to run to. Everyone is screaming, everyone is covered in blood,” a third witness recalled.
These are the accounts of people who provided first aid to those injured in the Russian missile strike on the Institute of Communications building in Poltava. For three days, rescuers cleared the rubble and extracted bodies from the ruins. According to official information, 55 Ukrainians were killed, and 328 were injured. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) stated that they were unaware of any threat to the area or institution. However, local residents told journalists that Russian reconnaissance drones had been flying over Poltava all week.
Slidstvo.Info spoke with Poltava residents who described the morning of September 3. The video has English subtitles.
“DID THE GOVERNMENT NOT KNOW OR SEE RUSSIAN DRONES FLYING? OF COURSE, THEY DID!”
On the morning of September 3, Russia struck the Institute of Communications building in Poltava. An air raid alert was declared in the region two minutes before the explosions.
Local resident Alya said the strike happened right before her eyes: “It flew so low over me and hit the building directly. The building was like a pile of chalk that something was thrown into, and it just rose up like that.”
Alya, a resident of Poltava
She described seeing men jumping over the fence after the explosion. People were urged to leave the area due to the high probability of a repeat strike.
“I look, and men start jumping over the fence from there. Many were injured. I was so shocked; I had never seen a grown man, about 50 years old, with eyes like a frightened little deer: so confused, so scared, just not understanding anything,” Alya said.
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Alya asserts that Russian reconnaissance drones had been flying over the city all week before the tragedy – and they were seen by locals.
“For a whole week, drones were flying, every night there were drones. And the night before they were flying here—there were these cross-shaped reconnaissance drones. Sometimes they just fly like that, but those made this buzzing noise,” Alya recounted emotionally. “Did they (local authorities) not know and see that drones were flying? They did. No one can properly shoot them down in the dark. They are not large. This is not a big combat drone. Drones were flying for a week. Even a fool would understand. I stood on the balcony and saw it myself. And I thought: ‘Should I throw a broom at it or what? It was flying near the buildings. It was clearly visible. I say that drones were flying for a week. And they were flying that night too. And people from the buildings – if you ask those who work late – they hear and see them.”
However, the acting head of the Poltava regional branch of the SBU, Kostiantyn Semeniuk, denied that Russian drones had been flying over the city for a week. He said that the SBU did not have such reports: “The SBU branch was not aware of such information. These are comments from people, maybe there… I cannot comment on them.”
Alya believes that local authorities should have ensured the safety of the people and relocated the cadets to another building.
“I just don’t understand why people were kept in this school. We have enough space,” said Alya. “Old factories, you can convert schools, for example, [switch] half of them to online [learning]. Move people to where there is a bomb shelter. If they are valuable to you. And excuse me, gathering everyone in an old school where the entire Soviet Union was trained…”
Photo: Taras Fedorenko
“EVERYONE IS SCREAMING, EVERYONE IS COVERED IN BLOOD. AND I DON’T KNOW WHO TO RUN TO”
Ihor Shafarchuk arrived at the scene of the strike five minutes after the Russian attack. He provided first aid to the wounded and witnessed the aftermath at the Institute of Communications building.
Ihor Shafarchuk, provided first aid
“I got here literally within 5 minutes,” said Ihor. “When I was driving toward the smoke, I saw where it hit. I turn around, and see the gate, and there are bodies lying. It’s just shocking that each subsequent person is even heavier. Why? Because they lost even more blood.”
Polina Melnyk also tried to save the injured. She says she has never seen such a large number of wounded in her experience.
Polina Melnyk, provided first aid
“Every 5 minutes, 5 injured people were brought in and taken away, new ones were brought in,” Polina said. “There were many wounded, and there was nowhere to load them. Some vans came and loaded people onto the floor. Into a passenger van. They say: ‘Load as many as you can, and we’ll take them.’ Because I really had a situation where I see 5-6 injured people, and I don’t know who to run to. Everyone is screaming, everyone is covered in blood. And I just run to the first one, look if they’re okay, then to the second… Well, it was my first experience with such mass casualties.”
“HE STARTED CLASSES ON THURSDAY AND DIED ON TUESDAY”
Mykola Zynovyev was 39 years old. The day before the tragedy, he was assigned to command a unit and sent to Poltava for communications training. Mykola was killed from a direct missile hit on his way to a shelter.
His mother said that he had been in training for less than a week. Before that, he was on paternity leave caring for his child.
Mykola Zynovyev’s mother
“He served in a mechanized unit and was sent for training. Barely a week had passed when this tragedy struck…” said Mykola’s mother. “They started classes on Thursday, and by Tuesday, he was killed. He was running down the stairs when a shell hit, and he was the only one from his company struck. We could only recognize him at the morgue by his arms and shoes.”
She described how Mykola was happy with the training and liked everything. He last spoke to his wife on the morning of September 3, before the missile attack: “He spoke with his wife on September 3 at 8 a.m. He loved his wife and his children so much. He is survived by two kids. The youngest just turned 4 years old. How to raise them? How will she cope? It’s just a nightmare.”
The woman also told journalists that she and her daughter-in-law had already been to the morgue. Mykola’s body was severely damaged by the direct missile hit. They identified him by his arms and shoes.
The head of the Joint Training Center for Communications Troops, Ihor Mitsiuk, during a briefing on the Russian strike on the educational institution in Poltava, asserted that the situation had been analyzed and a solution found to prevent such a tragedy in the future: “We have analyzed what happened, how it happened, and what we can do to prevent it. There are already certain decisions. I won’t specify for security reasons. But conclusions have been drawn, paths have been thought out, and decisions have been made.”
