Serious damage and casualties have been reported after a missile strike at a Ukrainian military base less than 20 kilometres from the Polish border yesterday.
The strike, which killed 35 and left 134 wounded came within hours of Russia threatening to attack arms shipments to Ukraine.
Russia claims 180 “foreign mercenaries” were killed in the strike on the border base.
Award-winning American journalist Brent Renaud was also killed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Irpin, police in Kyiv said in social media posts yesterday. Another American journalist was reported wounded.
In a tweet, Kyiv region police identified the dead man as Renaud, who was 50. Police posted a photo of his body and his American passport as evidence, as well as a photo of an outdated New York Times press badge with Renaud’s name.
Eight Russian missiles hit the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security northeast of Yavoriv, Ukraine, just before dawn, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukraine has been actively recruiting foreign fighters during the war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said last Monday that 20,000 foreign fighters had already applied to enlist into the foreign legion. Ukraine’s Intelligence Directorate said that the volunteers were from 52 different countries, and were “mostly experienced fighters who have participated in many peacekeeping campaigns around the world.”
The attack was part of a larger raid on west Ukraine. The damage appeared widespread according to reports on the ground, with large columns of smoke rising over the horizon and devastation seen on the base’s perimeter.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Russia appears to be “broadening its target set” following a series of airstrikes in western Ukraine that are creeping closer toward the Polish border, the beginning of NATO’s eastern flank.
Kirby appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and addressed the latest Russian airstrike on a Ukrainian airbase located just 13 miles east of Ukraine’s border with Poland, a NATO member. Kirby said it was Russia’s third airstrike on military facilities and airfields in western Ukraine in the last couple of days.
“We have been consistently concerned about NATO’s eastern flank and that airspace … and we continue to look for ways to bolster defence of NATO allies, we continue to look for ways to try to protect that airspace,” Kirby said.
When asked about the concerns of Russia’s westward movement toward Poland, Kirby reiterated the administration’s vow that the U.S. and its allies will protect NATO territory.