According to Ukraine, among the 51 soldiers killed in the rocket attack on Poltava

When the missiles hit, classes were in progress at the Poltava Institute of Military Communications, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a later statement.

Previous reports by Russian military bloggers had suggested that the cadets had gathered at the institute for a military parade, but the ministry confirmed that no parade was taking place at the time of the attack.

At 09:08 (07:08 CET) the alarms sounded and everyone went into the shelter, the Defense Ministry added. The explosions began a few minutes after the alarms.

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told the BBC that the two minutes between the sound of the air raid siren in Poltava and the landing of the missiles were “nothing”.

“Just imagine you're on the sixth floor of a building and you have to run down the stairs. Is it realistic that you can do that in two minutes?” he said.

“Imagine this life, several times a day. We can't go on like this. It's just not fair.”

In a statement posted on Telegram confirming the deaths of the servicemen, Ukrainian ground forces said an investigation was underway to determine whether enough had been done to protect people at the facility hit by the missile.

It was confirmed that additional measures to ensure security at military facilities will be increased.

A resident of Poltava, Olena Serdjuk, said: “The air raid alarm started within a minute, and then there were two explosions.”

“When we got home, we immediately ran to the bathroom with the child, but then we pulled ourselves together again.” She added that there was no air raid shelter “in our area” and that it “takes a long time to run anywhere.”

Another local, Anastasiia Artyukh, heard “two very strong explosions” and called the situation “really scary.”

“There is a house nearby, everything was blown out, all the windows. We don't have a basement in our house. So our only option was to sit [and wait].”