A Russian missile strike hits a military training ground in the region of Dnipro, causing casualties. A majority of Ukrainians want the country’s activists to focus on army support, not on government criticism, a poll finds. Zelenskyi gets a boost in support, with his approval rating growing to 49 per cent, a poll finds. Nearly half of Ukrainians say Ukraine will be able to keep fighting without U.S. support, a poll finds.
Russian missile strike hits military training ground in region of Dnipro, causing casualties
Ukraine’s land forces confirmed Monday that a Ukrainian military unit was targeted by a Russian missile strike on Saturday. The attack inflicted deaths and injuries, they said. Unofficial reports earlier stated that Russia’s military had carried out a missile strike on a training ground in Cherkaske, in the region of Dnipro, where the soldiers of the 157th Separate Mechanized Brigade gathered in formation.
“The command and personnel of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine express their deep condolences to the families and friends of the military who were killed in the missile strike,” Ukraine’s land forces said in a statement.
“Detailed checks are underway to find out all circumstances of what happened. [The land forces] are providing the military police and other relevant law enforcement agencies with all necessary information to make sure that the investigation is utterly transparent,” the statement reads.
No official toll has been released. Sources in the military and other unnamed sources cited by Ukrainian media said dozens were killed and up to one hundred wounded in the attack.
Army volunteer Serhiy Sternenko said Sunday that Russia’s military struck an army training ground in the region of Dnipro, 100-130 kilometers from the front line. “The strike was directed by a Russian reconnaissance drone. It was not shot down, because there is no adequate system in place. The Air Command East (Skhid) is in the worst positions for implementing anti-drone air defense solutions. Earlier the commander of this Air Force unit banned even training flights of FPV drones. There have been consequences already — a strike on a Patriot air defense system. No one was held responsible for that, no one at all,” Sternenko said.
Ukraine’s Land Forces Commander Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi issued a statement on Monday, saying that he was personally overseeing the case with a view to recreate “each second” of what happened. “Because it pains me too. Because anger is eating away at me from the inside,” he said.
“I was waiting for the first reports to avoid being groundless. I have a warning [for them]: everyone who made decisions that day, and everyone who did not make them in time, will all be held accountable. No one will hide behind explanations or formal reports,” he said.
Drapatyi said he would not allow anyone to “try to hide the truth in the fog of bureaucracy.” He added that he had ordered “an independent audit involving military counterintelligence so that no detail is overlooked, and the guilty are named and cannot get away with it.”
“I will demand the most severe punishment. Those who continue to perform their duties negligently and formally during the years of war, those who ‘draw’ the military into outdated procedures, neglecting their safety, those who assert themselves not in battle, but by oppressing their subordinates — all of them disgrace the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Drapatyi said.
Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation said Monday it had opened a criminal proceeding following the death and injury of Ukrainian service members as a result of a Russian missile strike on a training ground in the region of Dnipro.
Majority of Ukrainians want activists to focus on army support, not on government criticism, poll finds
A majority of Ukrainians (60 per cent) say that support to Ukraine’s defense forces and a fight against Russia’s aggression should be a top priority for the country’s civil society — public activists, journalists and common citizens, according to the survey, published on Monday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
Twenty-six per cent say that civil society needs to focus on fighting against the possible wrongdoings of the government. Fourteen per cent were undecided.
The poll was conducted in the first half of February 2025, ahead of Russia-U.S. talks and before Ukraine-U.S. relations escalated. Had it been held today, a share of Ukrainians prioritizing support to the military for the country’s civil society would be even higher.
The Omnibus survey was conducted between February 4 and 9, 2025. The research includes a sample of 1,000 adults aged 18 and over who were staying in government-controlled parts of Ukraine when polled.
In the normal distribution, the margin of error for the sample did not exceed 4.1 per cent when percentages are close to 50 per cent, 3.5 per cent when percentages are close to 25 per cent, 2.5 per cent when percentages are close to 10 per cent, and 1.8 per cent when percentages are close to 5 per cent, the pollster said.
Zelenskyi gets boost in support, with his approval rating growing to 49 per cent, poll finds
President Zelenskyi’s approval rating now stands at 49 per cent, marking an increase against a backdrop of recent political developments, a survey conducted by the Gradus Research Company on March 1 found.
Zelenskyi would get 23 per cent of the votes if elections were held next Sunday, according to the pollster’s survey last week.
Forty-four per cent of Ukrainians say the country is moving in the right direction and 36 per cent say that Ukraine is on the wrong track. This marks an increase from December 2024 when 36 per cent said the country was headed in the right direction and 42 per cent had opposing views on the matter.
Fifty-eight per cent of Ukrainians are against holding elections during wartime, the survey found, marking an increase from 52 per cent last week.
Gradus conducted a self-administered survey using a mobile app. The pollster surveyed 1,000 adults ages 18 to 60. The sample reflects the population structure of cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and excluds temporarily occupied areas and zones of intense fighting.
Nearly half of Ukrainians say Ukraine will be able to keep fighting without U.S. support, poll finds
Forty-six per cent of Ukrainians say their country will be able to continue fighting against Russia, even if the U.S. pulls support, a survey conducted by the Gradus Research Company on March 1 found. Thirty-six per cent hold opposing views.
“This suggests that a large segment of the population is prepared to continue resisting even in a negative scenario for Ukraine,” the pollster said.
Ukrainians still hope that the war ends this year, Gradus said. “The expectations surged in late 2024 following Trump’s election victory in the U.S. and remain high. Hope for an end to the war will depend directly on the situation on the battlefield and the level of support by international partners,” the pollster added.