Russian Missile Strike On Ukraine Food Storage Facility Kills 35

Russian missiles pounded a military base in western Ukraine on Sunday, killing 35 people in an attack on a facility that serves as a hub for cooperation between Ukraine and NATO countries supporting its defense.

Photo Insert: A 500-kg Russian bomb fell on a residential building in Chernihiv that did not explode.

The barrage escalated Moscow’s offensive and moved the fighting close to the Polish border, Yuras Karmanau reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The attack so near a NATO member country raised the possibility that the alliance could be drawn into the fight and it was heavy with symbolism in a conflict that has revived old Cold War rivalries and threatened to rewrite the current global security order.

More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the sprawling facility at Yavoriv, which has long been used to train Ukrainian soldiers, often with instructors from the US and other countries in the Western alliance.

Poland is also a transit route for hundreds of millions of Western humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and the strikes followed Moscow’s threats to target those shipments. A total of 134 people were injured in the same attack, which saw a big number of the missiles destroyed by Ukrainian air defense.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a “black day,” and again urged NATO leaders to establish a no-fly zone over the country, a plea that the West has said could escalate the war to a nuclear confrontation.

“If you do not close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian missiles fall on your territory. NATO territory. On the homes of citizens of NATO countries,” Zelenskyy said.

Since their invasion more than two weeks ago, Russian forces have struggled in their advance across Ukraine, in the face of stiffer than expected resistance, bolstered by Western weapons support.

Instead, Russian forces have besieged several cities and pummeled them with strikes, hitting two dozen medical facilities and leading to a series of humanitarian crises. The UN has recorded at least 596 civilian deaths, though it believes the true toll is much higher, and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said that at least 85 children are among them.

An American filmmaker and journalist was also killed Sunday. Millions more people have fled their homes amid the largest land conflict in Europe since World War II.

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