Putin says Russia’s ‘primary objective’ is to capture Ukraine’s Donbas region Kyiv: The death toll from a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Poltava rose to 54 with nearly 300 wounded, Ukrainian officials said Thursday. The strike hit the Poltava military communications institute, according to Ukrainian officials who did not specify how many of the victims were military or civilians. “The death toll rises to 54 after the Russian strike on educational institution in Poltava. Another 297 people were injured,” Ukraine’s emergency services said. Up to five people could be trapped under the rubble, it added, two days after two ballistic missiles hit the central city of Poltava, in one of one of the single deadliest strikes of the two-and-a-half-year war. The attack triggered widespread condemnation, including from Washington which denounced it as “another horrific reminder of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s brutality.” It also prompted criticism in Ukraine after unconfirmed reports said the strikes had targeted an outdoor military ceremony, with many blaming reckless behavior from officials who allowed the event to take place despite the threat of attacks. President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the strike. Capture the Donbas region President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Moscow’s main Ukraine aim was to capture the Donbas region and that Russia’s army was “gradually” pushing back Kyiv’s forces from the Kursk region after their surprise incursion. “The aim of the enemy was to make us worry... and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in the Donbas, the liberation of which is our main primary objective,” Putin said at a forum in Vladivostok, adding: “Our armed forces have stabilized the situation (in Kursk) and started gradually squeezing (the enemy) out from our territory.”