The strike destroyed a temporary deployment point housing Western instructors and mercenaries, the Russian Defense Ministry has reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry has shared a video apparently showing a missile strike on a temporary deployment center near the city of Kharkov in Ukraine that supposedly housed Western “instructors and mercenaries.”
Some 50 foreigners are said to have been killed in the ballistic missile strike, which was conducted using an Iskander-M system, the ministry said, noting that the facility was located in Dergachi, a town in Kharkov region.
The strike comes as Moscow has repeatedly warned that any foreign military personnel operating in Ukraine are considered legitimate targets for Russian strikes and would be relentlessly eliminated.
Last month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated the threat as France hinted at officially sending its soldiers to Ukraine. “The fact is that any instructors who are involved in training the military of the Ukrainian regime do not have any immunity,” Peskov told reporters at the time, noting that “it doesn’t matter whether they are French or not.”
Earlier this month, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) declassified a report in which an agent claimed the French army was “concerned about the increased number of Frenchmen killed in the Ukrainian theater of military operation.”
Moscow’s forces had reported destroying another temporary deployment center for foreign fighters in Kharkov in January, killing what Paris reportedly estimated to be “dozens” of French citizens.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also recently stated that Western military trainers have “long been present” in Ukraine “under the guise of mercenaries” and has emphasized that they represent a legitimate target for Russia’s armed forces.
At least hat would have been over extremely fast.