Hello, welcome to News Hour, from the BBC World Service coming to you live from

London. I'm Paul Henley and we start in Ukraine in the central city of

Poltava where more than 50 people according to the authorities

were killed and more than 200 injured in Russian missile strikes.

Emergency teams have been at the sight of two ballistic strikes since the

attacks happened earlier today President Zelensky gave more details.

I've received preliminary reports on the Russian strike on Poltava,

on the Russian strike on Poltava.

According to currently available information,

two ballistic missiles hit the territory of an educational institution and a nearby

hospital.

One of the buildings of the Institute of Communications was partially destroyed, people found themselves under the rubble. Many

were saved. More than 180 people were injured. Unfortunately many died. Oxano Bhutenko is an English teacher in the city of Poltava who tells me she's almost

accustomed to living under daily threat of Russian attack.

I asked her how she was first made aware of the missile attacks today.

So the first thing I knew was the sound of the missile attack and I saw on my

gadget that there is a rocket heading towards Poltava.

So the first thing we've had these two explosions and then started numerous pieces of news about the amount of casualities so we were all

waiting for the news from our officials. Have you seen anything of the damage?

I have seen the video sent by a friend of mine who's

been there since the very first minutes and he's been helping the injured and

wounded and I also asked him how the things were going because after this happened I keep

...