By Andrew R.C. Marshall

YAVORIV (Ukraine) – The Ukrainian colonel’s car was damaged in a blast. He limped from the forest, where he had been treating soldiers who were injured in a Russian missile strike on a military facility at the country’s western frontier.

Leonid Benzalo is an officer of the Ukrainian medical reserve. He told Reuters that he was sleeping in a Yavoriv base dormitory, 15 miles (20 km) away from the Polish border when he heard the sirens.

He said that the soldiers had taken shelter in the forest for about two hours and returned to their dormitory after the missiles hit.

The dormitory and dining room were also destroyed. “So were the barracks,” he said to Reuters. He spoke after his driver stopped at a station along the route to Lviv, where he still had blood on his uniform.

The International Center for Peacekeeping and Security is housed in the military training facility. This building was the biggest of its kind in Ukraine.

He said that the blast ripped through the structure, throwing Benzalo around the room. Six powerful explosions were recalled by him.

He stated, “The best thing about us is that we’re still living.”

Officials in Ukraine claimed that the Russian attack killed 35 and left at least 130 others injured.

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed that it had attacked Ukraine and killed 180 “foreign” mercenaries. It also destroyed a lot of weapons supplied by other countries to Ukraine.

Reuters couldn’t independently verify either the Russian damage or casualties, nor the deaths reported by the other side.

As it bombed and besieged more cities to its east, this was the most westerly attack on Ukraine since Russia attacked on February 24, 2004.

Reuters witnessed at least eight injured men being wheeled or stretchered into ambulances headed for Lviv from a nearby hospital. Some of the men were wearing military uniforms and had burns to their faces or hands.

Maksym Kzytskyy was the regional governor and he appealed for special medical equipment to help with wounds. In a post on Facebook (NASDAQ:), he stated that anyone can help if they have the chance.

Reuters couldn’t immediately verify Russia’s claims that foreigners had been at the base when the strike occurred or their origins.

Oleksii Reznikov (Ukraine Defense Minister) tweeted on Sunday that there were “foreign teachers working here” and that the information regarding the victims was being “clarified”. It was unclear if Reznikov meant that any foreigners were present on Sunday. He also did not mention any nationalities.

While Ukraine was able to conduct most of its drills in the West at the base, it lost the majority of the equipment. According to Ukrainian media, all foreign teachers fled Ukraine around mid-February.

A NATO official stated that there aren’t any NATO personnel living in Ukraine when asked about the presence of NATO personnel.

Although Western countries have tried to isolate Moscow through imposing severe economic sanctions on Moscow and have provided weapons to Ukraine, the United States of America and its allies want to prevent NATO from being involved in this conflict.

FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS

On March 3, a Ukrainian official said to Reuters that Yavoriv was central in the enlistment of foreign fighters into Ukraine’s army.

Roman Shepelyak of Lviv Regional State Administration, who heads the Department for International Technical Assistance and International Cooperation, stated that all of them end at Yavoriv.

Shepelyak claimed that foreign fighters have come from many different countries. That included – according to Reuters, on the day Reuters visited his office – Poland and Holland.

Reuters has been told by some foreign volunteers that they will be fighting against Russia in Ukraine as individuals, not under the flag of their home country.

As an example, the British government has advised its citizens against joining the conflict.