KYIV (Reuters): The commander of Ukraine’s land forces, one of the most senior positions in the country’s military, announced on Sunday that he was tendering his resignation, citing a lethal strike on Ukrainian military training facility.
Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi has been in charge of Ukraine’s vast wartime land army since November last year.
“This is a conscious step dictated by my personal sense of responsibility for the tragedy at the 239th training ground, which resulted in the deaths of our soldiers,” he wrote on Facebook.
An earlier statement from the land forces’ Telegram page said that twelve soldiers had been killed and 60 others wounded by a Russian missile strike on Sunday.
“These are young guys from a training battalion. Most of them were in shelters,” Drapatyi wrote.
“They were supposed to study, live, fight – not die. My deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to all those who suffered.”
