NOVOYAVORIVSK, Ukraine – Hours after Russian missiles decimated a military base near the Polish border on Sunday, soldiers in camouflage were still being wheeled out of an overwhelmed nearby hospital on stretchers, many in so much pain they could only turn their heads to close their eyes. show with fear.
The soldiers, en route to larger hospitals with more capacity, were casualties in one of the worst attacks in the war by Russian forces in Ukraine’s western region to date.
The base in Yavoriv, a strategic hub for military training, is about ten kilometers from the border with Poland, a member of the NATO alliance and the European Union. It was the closest Russian missile to land near NATO territory since Russia invaded Ukraine, raising fears that the conflict could escalate into a wider war.
“After us comes Europe,” said Volodymyr Matseliukh, the mayor of the nearby city of Novoyavorivsk. “As long as Russia is not punished, no one in Ukraine or in Europe is safe.”
With much of the fighting in recent weeks taking place in southern, northern and eastern Ukraine, many have attempted to flee the violence by traveling west to places like Novoyavorivsk, the town near the base, which had not been bombed until Saturday morning. since the first day of the war.
“People thought they were safe here because they are under the shelter of NATO, because of the proximity to the border,” said Volodymyr Lytvyn, a banker and former minister of the Ukrainian government who traveled from the capital Kiev to Novoyavorivsk, his hometown. had come.
“Now people are really panicking,” he said. “They started looking for real shelters. They had the illusion that we are so close, that Patriot missiles from Poland will fire anything that comes close. But it seems that this is not the case.”
Flames ripped through the air just before dawn on Sunday when the attack began, following a series of deafening explosions. In a matter of seconds, entire structures on the ground could be seen in images sent to DailyExpertNews by a fighter at the base, the thumping booms and clouds of smoke blocking the sky.
Vasil, a middle-aged bus driver returning from driving refugees to the border, said it was around 5:50 am when he heard the deep “buh-buh” explosion. “The whole sky was in flames,” he said. Vasil, who refused to give his last name for fear of his personal safety, added: “I am a God-fearing man. I took off my hat, looked at the sky, and prayed.”
At least 35 people were killed and at least 134 others injured in the strike, according to Ukrainian officials. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it killed 180 foreign fighters in the attack. The Times was unable to independently verify either count, and government sources on both sides appeared to be inflating their opponents’ military losses.
About 1,000 foreigners who wanted to help Ukraine fight against Russia are said to have been training at the base known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, part of the new international legion Ukraine has formed to help repel Russia. Authorities did not say whether any foreign citizens were among the dead or injured.
Videos show that several buildings have been nearly destroyed or are still on fire, as well as a large crater next to the camp’s training facility and sports fields. The crater was so deep it could fit a truck, you hear the man making the video say. The fires raged for hours after the explosion and were not extinguished until around 3 p.m.
Soldiers who were on the base during the attack described the site of terror. It was “hell,” said Jesper Soder, a Swedish fighter. “They know exactly what to look out for. They know exactly what they have done. And they were targeting us. And I said, we’ll be done in an hour if we don’t leave. And I told everyone, and a lot of people followed me, and a lot of people stayed.”
Mr Soder added: “Many of them are traumatized.”
A US fighter, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said he had previously worked for the military in explosives for the military in Iraq and described the missile hitting the ground sounded like a plane crash. He said it set the roofs of buildings on fire and made people scream.
At the hospital in Novoyavorivsk, doctors were seen on Sunday afternoon tending the injured who remained and calling nurses about spinal injuries, damaged ears and trauma to a skull.
Since the 1990s, soldiers from the United States, Britain, Canada, Poland, Latvia and other Western allies have used the base to train Ukrainian troops.
One of the buildings hit in the attack was in an area where U.S., Canadian and other foreign military instructors had resided before the invasion, according to a U.S. Army broadcast journalist who conducted the multinational training at the base.
Dozens of Florida Army National Guard soldiers trained Ukrainian troops at the base as part of a NATO mission until Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered them to leave the country last month, days before the Russian invasion. The base has also trained troops for peacekeeping operations in which Ukraine has participated, often as part of United Nations missions elsewhere in Europe and Africa.
The town of Novoyavorivsk was founded in the 1960s for workers at a nearby sulfur mine and the military base. Tall apartment buildings span the city blocks, with large courtyards within. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, much of the city has been dependent on cross-border trade with Poland.
After the explosion at the military base, Mr Lytvyn, the banker and former minister of the Ukrainian government, said he had packed his parents, sister and extended family and sent them to Poland.
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His father, Mykola, a retired engineer, had not wanted to leave the city he had helped build and build, and his mother, Olha, had not anticipated the journey: a vase of orange tulips still stood on the kitchen table and a freshly made pot of chicken stock was on the stove Sunday afternoon after they left.
Lytvyn’s sister Nataliya wept as she said goodbye to him and her son-in-law Myroslav, neither of whom were allowed to leave the country because of a ban imposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on military-aged men.
“What hurts me the most is what they feel,” Mr Lytvyn said.
Early Sunday, about a dozen families were sleeping on mattresses in the gym of a nearby elementary school when they were shaken awake by the attack.
“It was so scary,” said Dasha Storezhenko, who had arrived five days earlier from Kharkov, which has been heavily bombed by Russian artillery since the early days of the war. She was resting on a mattress with her sister, two daughters and 5-year-old son Sasha, who was watching cartoons.
Sasha, Ms Storezhenko said, had asked to sleep in the basement after Kharkiv had been shelled by rockets for days. A few days ago, he announced that when he grows up, he will defend Ukraine from the enemy.
“We thought we would be safe here,” said the mother, “but now we can’t go out.”
Maria Varenikova and Andriana Zmysla provided coverage from Lviv, Ukraine, and Yousur Al-Hlou from Kiev, Ukraine.
