A Russian strike on a training center in Ukraine's Poltava on September 3 killed and wounded about 500 military specialists, including mercenaries from Europe, a senior military source said on Friday.
"As a result of the strike, about 500 specialists were killed and wounded. Among the dead and wounded are servicepeople of the Ukrainian armed forces and the National Guard - communication specialists, operators of radio-electronic warfare systems, electronic intelligence, unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as foreign mercenaries from Poland, France, Germany and Sweden who were training the Ukrainian military," the source said.
About 50 French fighters were killed as a result of the strike by the Iskander tactical ballistic missile system on a foreign mercenary station in Ukraine's Konstantinovka (Kostyantynivka), the statement said.
High-precision strikes against the positions of Ukrainian troops and mercenaries, as well as military facilities, will now become a regular occurrence, the source added.