KYIV — At least 50 people were killed and 271 wounded when Russia hit a military institute in Ukraine's central town of Poltava with two ballistic missiles on Tuesday (Sept 3), the war's deadliest single attack this year.

Photographs posted on social media showed several bodies of young men on the ground covered in dust and debris, with the badly damaged side of a large building behind them. Reuters could not immediately verify the images.

"The Russian scum will definitely be held accountable for this strike," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.

He ordered a prompt investigation, saying the strike damaged a building of the Military Institute of Communications.

In his nightly video address, delivered later in the evening, Zelenskiy put the death toll at 51.

"It is known that there are people under the rubble of the destroyed building," he said. "Everything is being done to save as many lives as possible."

The emergency service gave a death toll of 50. Poltava Regional Governor Filip Pronin said 15 people may still be under the rubble.

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