March 13, 2022 3:28 AM ET
March 13, 2022 at 3:28 am The ETA building at the base in western Ukraine, near the Polish border, burned down. Officials said the complex was fired upon by Russian missiles. The Times received these photos from the fighter in the center.
A pre-dawn rocket attack on a military training base in northwestern Ukraine killed at least nine people Sunday morning, officials said, bringing the war dangerously close to NATO forces stationed just a dozen miles from the Polish border and expanding war as Russia seeks to stop the flow of weapons to Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian military and local authorities, eight rockets were fired at the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security. The air defense systems intercepted some but stuck a few at the base, a key logistics center and training center for foreign fighters. Colonel Anton Myronovych, spokesman for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said at least nine people were killed and 57 injured, but information is still coming in. 300 people injured in the attack arrived for treatment.
This was stated by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov. called strikes “a terrorist attack on peace and security near the EU-NATO border” and repeated his government’s calls for allies to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
The base, also known as the Yavoriv military complex, is a vital link in the delivery of weapons from NATO allies to Ukraine. On Saturday, Russia warned that weapons sent to Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets” for Russian forces. Just hours later, the United States defied Moscow by promising Ukraine an additional $200 million in arms and equipment.
Before the war, the base was used by NATO to train the Ukrainian military.
Soldiers from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Poland, Latvia and many other allies worked at the base, where foreign fighters who volunteered to fight are now organized and trained. The Ukrainian government estimates that about 20,000 people from all over the world signed up for the nascent International Legion. Several thousand Americans are among them, according to officials familiar with the legion but not authorized to speak publicly.
It is not yet clear how many Americans were on the base at the time of the attack. One American who volunteered to fight was contacted by phone after the strikes and said that the site had been bombed and he could not speak.
According to Master Sergeant Jonathan Norris, who worked as a correspondent for the US Army and covered multinational training at the base, one of the damaged buildings was in the part where American, Canadian and other foreign military instructors slept before the war.
Colonel Myronovych, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, told The New York Times on March 11 that “up to a thousand foreigners” are being trained at the base.
The most skillful, well-trained foreigners have already been sent to the front line and assigned to units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said.
Austin Ramsey, Benjamin Foley, Valerie Hopkins and Andriana Zmysla contributed reporting.
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