Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Monday, 23 May, said that as many as 87 people of his country were killed in an air-strike carried out by Russia in Desna, a week ago on Tuesday, 17 May.
This is the largest military death toll that the east-European country has ever witnessed in a single strike of a war, reported Reuters.
"Today, we completed work at Desna. In Desna under the rubble, there were 87 causalities. 87 corpses," Zelenskyy said, while he virtually addressed global leaders at Davos on Monday. Last week, authorities in Ukraine had said 8 people were killed due to the strike.
Zelenskyy, however, did not ascertain if the people who had died in the strike were civilians or military officers. The town which saw the strike has military barracks and a training base.
A spokesperson from Russian military had said on the day of the attack that high-precision, long range missiles hit two sites in Ukraine, one being the country's reserve forces training center near Desna, located in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv, reported Reuters.
In April, as many as 52 people were killed in a train station of Kramatorsk city in Ukraine.
Following a bombing at Mariupol in March, Ukrainian authorities had said that hundreds of people were trapped under the rubble of a Mariupol theatre. They could not, however, confirm the death toll.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)