Yavoriv military base attack | |||||
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Part of in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine | |||||
Aftermath of the missile strike | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
Russia | Ukraine | ||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||
Units involved | |||||
Russian Armed Forces | |||||
Casualties and losses | |||||
None | Per Ukraine: [1] 61 killed, 160 wounded Per Russia: up to 180 foreign volunteers killed [2] |
The Yavoriv military base was attacked by Russian forces on 13 March 2022 as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The base is located near the city of Yavoriv, Lviv Oblast, less than 15 miles from the border with Poland. According to Ukrainian officials, the military facility was hit by 30 Russian missiles, 35 ukrainian soldiers were killed and at least 100 people from international legion. others were injured. According to Russian officials, '180 foreign mercenaries' were killed. [3] [4] [5] [6] Later, the Ukrainian police confirmed 61 people were killed and 160 were injured. [1]
As many as 1,000 foreign fighters had been training at the base as part of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. [7] Air raid sirens sounded during the night and though automated air defense equipment arrested some incoming ordinance, several buildings including the headquarters were struck with cruise missiles carrying payloads of up to 500kg. Volunteers repositioned into the woods and over 50 were injured in the ensuing panic. [8]
The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that it had destroyed "up to 180 foreign mercenaries and a large consignment of foreign weapons" and said that Russia would continue attacks on foreign fighters in Ukraine; the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said that it had not confirmed any foreigners among the dead. [9] On 14 March, British newspaper The Mirror said that at least three British ex-special forces volunteers may have been killed in the attack, with the total amount of dead volunteers potentially surpassing one hundred. [10] [11] On 17 March, a German volunteer who survived the attack told the Austrian Newspaper Heute that at least 100 foreign volunteers had been present at the moment one of the buildings was destroyed, and none survived. He said the death toll released by the Ukrainian government only accounted for Ukrainian personnel. [12]
In an interview with Última Hora , the mother of Spanish soldier Angel Martinez, who died on 18 June, said that "When there was an attack in Lviv, he contacted me because he was very scared. He wrote to me that he was on guard duty when they were bombed. He told me that 138 people were killed and 48 were injured. They weren't allowed to send pictures." [13]
Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov described the strike as a "terrorist attack on peace and security near the EU-Nato border". [5] A NATO official stated that there were no NATO personnel at the base, as all personnel had left the country prior to the invasion. [14]
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Yavoriv is a city in the Lviv region of western Ukraine which is around 15 kilometers from the Polish border. It is the administrative centre of Yavoriv Raion and is situated approximately 50 kilometres west of the oblast capital, Lviv. Yavoriv hosts the administration of Yavoriv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is approximately 12,785.
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The International Center for Peacemaking and Security, also known as the Yavoriv military base, is a military training facility of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Yavoriv in western Ukraine, some 10 km from the border with Poland and 30 kilometers northwest of Lviv in Yavoriv district. The facility houses an International Center for Peacekeeping and Security within the framework of the Ukraine–NATO Partnership for Peace program and the National Military Academy Hetman Petro Sahaidatschnyj. The base covers an area of around 390 km2 and can accommodate up to 1,790 people. The course covers an area of 36,153 hectares; until the creation of the Yavoriv National Park, it was 42,000 hectares in size.
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