Sense of safety lost after attack on military base

NOVOYAVORIVSK (Ukraine) • Hours after Russian missiles decimated a military base near the Polish border on Sunday, soldiers in camouflage were still being wheeled out of an overwhelmed nearby hospital, many in so much pain they could only turn their heads to reveal eyes stricken with fear.

The soldiers, who were headed to larger hospitals with more capacity, were casualties in one of the worst attacks in the war thus far by Russian forces on the western region of Ukraine.

The base at Yavoriv, a strategic hub for military training, is less than 25km from the border with Nato member Poland. It was the closest that Russian missiles had landed near Nato territory since Russia invaded Ukraine, deepening fears that the conflict could spread into a wider war.

With much of the fighting in recent weeks contained in Ukraine's south, north and east, many people had tried to escape the violence by travelling west to places like Novoyavorivsk, a town near the military base, which until the weekend had not been bombed since the war started.

"After us, comes Europe," said Novoyavorivsk mayor Volodymyr Matseliukh. "For as long as Russia is not punished, no one in Ukraine or in Europe is safe."

Flames ripped through the sky just before dawn on Sunday as the attack began on Yavoriv, following a series of deafening explosions.

In a matter of seconds, entire structures crumpled to the ground, the booms roaring and clouds of smoke blocking out the sky, videos showed.

"People thought they were safe here because they are under Nato's shelter, due to the proximity of the border," said banker Volodymyr Lytvyn, a former Ukrainian government minister who had come from the capital, Kyiv, to Novoyavorivsk, his home town.

"Now people are really panicked. They began looking for real shelters. They had this illusion that we are so close, that Patriot missiles from Poland will shoot whatever flies in proximity. But it appears that this is not the case."

Mr Vasil, a middle-aged bus driver who had been driving refugees to the border, said it was around 5.50am when he heard the blast.

"The entire sky was in flames," said Mr Vasil, who declined to give his last name. "I am a God-fearing man. I took off my hat, looked at the sky and prayed."

The strike killed at least 35 people and injured at least 134 more, Ukrainian officials said. Russia's Defence Ministry said 180 foreign fighters were killed.

About 1,000 foreigners hoping to help Ukraine fight Russia were believed to be training at the base, known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre, part of the new International Legion that Ukraine has formed to help repel Russia.

Videos show several structures nearly destroyed, or still burning, as well as a large crater next to the camp's training facility and sports fields. The crater was so deep a truck could fit into it, the man taking the video can be heard saying.

The fires raged for hours after the explosion and were not extinguished until around 3pm.

Mr Jesper Soder, a Swedish fighter who was at the base, said it was "hell", adding: "They know exactly what to aim for. They know exactly what they did. And they were targeting us.

"I said, in one hour we will be finished if we don't get out. And I told everybody, and a lot of people followed me, and a lot of people stayed. A lot of them are traumatised."

At the hospital in Novoyavorivsk, doctors could be seen on Sunday afternoon tending to the wounded who remained, calling out to nurses about spinal injuries, damaged ears and skull trauma.

Dozens of soldiers from the Florida Army National Guard had been training Ukrainian troops at the base as part of a Nato mission until Washington ordered them to leave the country last month, days before Russia invaded.

The base has also trained troops for peacekeeping operations that Ukraine has participated in, often as part of United Nations missions elsewhere in Europe and in Africa.

The town of Novoyavorivsk was established in the 1960s for workers at a nearby sulphur mine and the military base. High apartment buildings span the city's blocks, with large courtyards inside.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, much of the town has been dependent on cross-border trade with Poland.

After the blast at the base, Mr Lytvyn said he packed up his parents, sister and extended family and sent them to Poland.

His father, a retired engineer, had not wanted to leave the town he helped plan and build, and his mother had not anticipated the trip: A vase of orange tulips still sat on the kitchen table and a freshly made pot of chicken stock was still on the stove after they left.

Mr Lytvyn's sister Nataliya cried as she bade farewell to him and to her son-in-law, neither of whom were allowed to leave the country because of a ban that Ukraine instituted for men of military age.

Early on Sunday, about a dozen families had been sleeping on mattresses in the gym of a nearby primary school when they were shaken awake by the attack.

"It was so scary," said Ms Dasha Storezhenko, who had arrived in Novoyavorivsk only five days earlier from Kharkiv, which has been heavily bombed by Russian artillery since the first days of the war last month.

She was resting on a mattress with her sister, two daughters and five-year-old son, Sasha, who was watching cartoons.

Sasha, Ms Storezhenko said, had been asking to sleep in the basement after Kharkiv was pounded for days with missiles.

Several days ago, he announced that when he grows up, he will defend Ukraine against the enemy.

"We thought we would be safe here," Ms Storezhenko said, "but now we cannot go outside."

NYTIMES