Ukraine says 87 killed in Russian attack on military base

Eighty-seven people were killed in a Russian air strike in the town of Desna last Tuesday, potentially Ukraine’s biggest military death toll in a single strike of the war.

On the day of the attack, Moscow said high-precision, long-range missiles hit Ukrainian reserves forces at a training centre and at one other site.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky did not specify if the casualties from the attack in Desna were military or civilian. There is a military barracks and training base near the town.

“Today we completed work at Desna. In Desna under the rubble there were 87 casualties. 87 corpses,” Zelenskiy said on Monday during an address by videolink to a meeting of global business leaders at Davos.

Ukrainian authorities had said last week that eight people were killed in the strike.

At least 52 people were killed at a train station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk in April.

Ukrainian authorities have said they believe hundreds were trapped under the rubble of a theatre in Mariupol following a bombing in March, but they were unable to confirm the death toll.

With agencies