STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Ukrainians received two reminders that they are far from the end of the war.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Their president is reshaping his government for the next phase of the conflict, and Russia sent waves of missiles into the country, including some that landed on a military academy.
INSKEEP: NPR's Joanna Kakissis is covering the story from Kyiv, Ukraine. Joanna, what is this military academy?
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: So, Steve, it's called the Military Communications Institute, and it's in the city of Poltava and sort of the central eastern part of the country. Cadets there learn about digital innovation to help with drone and electronic warfare. And we spoke to Denys Kliap. He's in charge of a local rapid response team in Poltava. And he said, the explosions at this academy were so intense that he felt them almost 2 miles away. And when he arrived to the scene, he says he saw the worst tragedy he's witnessed in the war.
DENYS KLIAP: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: He's saying, "I have never seen so many dead bodies in one place and so mutilated. In some cases, I couldn't make out that this was a human being lying there." He said the injured were so dazed, and if the missiles came so fast that there wasn't time to shelter.
INSKEEP: Wow. I want to try to get this in perspective, Joanna, because from this distance from the United States, we may lose track a little bit. Is this happening all the time, to some degree, that missiles are constantly raining on the country?
KAKISSIS: Yes, it's a daily occurrence in Ukraine. There are strikes every day, but this last stretch, the last couple of days, has been especially bad. Last night, a university in the northeastern city of Sumy was hit, and early this morning, Russia launched guided missiles and drones all over Ukraine. A missile hit a residential building near a train station in Lviv, which is on the far west on the border with Poland. And officials there say at least seven people have died and more than a dozen are injured.
INSKEEP: So how is Ukraine's government responding to these attacks?
KAKISSIS: So Ukraine's President Volodymy Zelenskyy repeated something he said a lot, that the way to respond is for the White House to finally allow Ukraine to use these long-range weapons from the U.S. to strike at military targets deep into Russia.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT VOLODYMY ZELENSKYY: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: He's saying Russian strikes will become absolutely impossible if Ukraine has the ability to destroy launch sites, military airfields, and logistics hubs. And he's insisting that this will end the war sooner. The White House, though, is saying these strikes could actually escalate the war.
INSKEEP: Yeah, the concern is, of course, that at some point, Russia brings in nuclear weapons, but haven't we already crossed this line because Ukraine has literally invaded a portion of Russia in recent weeks?
KAKISSIS: Yeah, Ukraine's offensive into Russia's Kursk region shocked everyone, including the Ukrainians themselves. Ukrainian troops now occupy part of that region. And Zelenskyy seemed to hope that it could force Russia to the negotiating table, but after the attacks of the last couple of days, that doesn't seem to be happening.
INSKEEP: What is happening, of course, is that Zelenskyy is reshaping the government. What is he doing?
KAKISSIS: So he announced last night, you know, that he wanted to restructure state institutions, and shortly thereafter, all these letters of resignations from his cabinet started pouring in. And this morning, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba - he's one of the most prominent cabinet ministers - he also offered to resign. If Parliament accepts these resignations, it's going to be the biggest shakeup since the war began, and it comes at such a precarious time because as Ukraine pushes forward with that offensive in Russia, it's also losing land to Russia in the East.
INSKEEP: Trying to reorganize for whatever may come next. Joanna...
KAKISSIS: Yes.
INSKEEP: ...Thank you so much.
KAKISSIS: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Joanna Kakissis. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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