War in Ukraine: Vinnytsia counts its dead, Moscow claims to have targeted a military meeting

Rescuers work around a building damaged by a Russian missile strike in the heart of the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on July 14, 2022. AP - Efrem Lukatsky

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In Ukraine, anger reigns, after the Russian missile strike which hit the city center of Vinnytsia, in the center of the country, on Thursday.

Relief now counts 23 civilians killed and more than a hundred injured, while several dozen people are still missing.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

This Friday afternoon, the Russian Ministry of Defense tried to justify itself by claiming that missiles had been hit on the "Officers' House" in Vinnytsia, in order to neutralize a meeting of the command of the Ukrainian air forces, with representatives foreign arms suppliers.

But on the spot, absolutely nothing indicates the presence of a military target.

Did the Russian officers just see, on a Google map, the inscription "House of Officers", and decide to launch a cruise missile there?

This is the absurd question that many Ukrainians are asking themselves,

which destroyed this building in downtown Vinnytsia and affected around fifty surrounding buildings.

A cultural center

The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that part of the command of the air forces of kyiv was eliminated in the strike, except that no element on the spot corroborates this version.

Indeed, the "House of Officers" has been converted for many years into a cultural center and concert audience, where this weekend was to perform the singer Roxolana, unsuccessful candidate for the last Eurovision Song Contest.

Moreover, one of its technicians, who arrived early on the site, was killed in the bombardment.

On other levels, the building housed offices and small shops, service stalls, as is often the case in these old administrative buildings of the Soviet era.

Finally, a medical center specializing in perinatal care and early childhood was installed at the foot of the building, itself adjoining one of the busiest axes of Vinnytsia. 

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