On the evening of Tuesday 3 September, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) condemned the attack by two ballistic missiles on a military institute in Poltava (central Ukraine). At least 53 people are thought to have been killed and almost 300 injured.
“It is yet another targeted bloodshed that proves Russia’s determination to continue with its brutal war against Ukraine and its people, trying to cause the highest possible loss of life and inflict large-scale devastation”, the spokesman said in a statement.
“For the past two and a half years, Russia has been continuously terrorising Ukraine’s population by waging its illegal war of aggression, with indiscriminate missile and drone attacks across Ukraine’s territory, cowardly aiming mostly at civilian targets”, he denounced. Since this statement was released, the attacks on Ukraine have continued. On Wednesday, Russian air strikes killed at least seven people, including three children, in Lviv, in the west of the country.
The EEAS spokesperson said that the attacks only “underline the need for Ukraine, in accordance with its legitimate right to self-defence under the UN Charter, to be able to fend off effectively such heinous attacks launched from military platforms in Russia and push the aggressor back”. He warned that the EU remained determined to step up the provision of military support, including air defence systems and ammunition. These deliveries strengthen Ukrainian self-defence, save innocent lives and reduce the level of destruction in Ukraine, according to the spokesman.
With a complicated situation on the ground, six Ukrainian ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, and the Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, have resigned. Ukraine “needs new energy”, explained its President, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Wednesday 4 September.
In addition, the President sacked a deputy head of his administration, Rostyslav Shurma, accused of abusing his position to secure economic benefits for his family via a government anti-corruption structure, according to AFP. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)