Explosion at Ukraine army recruitment centre kills one

KYIV, Ukraine — A blast at an army recruitment centre in western Ukraine killed one person on Wednesday, the latest in a string of such incidents amid the country's divisive mobilisation drive.

Kyiv has been trying to replenish the ranks of its army struggling to hold off Russian troops, despite criticism of the draft and stray attacks on recruitment offices.

"Today, about an hour ago, an explosion occurred on the territory of the Kamianets-Podilsky district territorial centre for recruitment and social support," said Sergiy Tyurin, the head of the Khmelnytsky Regional State Administration.

"So far, we know about one dead and four wounded people."

Police separately announced that together with Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) they had detained three men suspected of attacking a recruitment centre in the central city of Pavlograd on Russian orders.

"The offenders were recruited via messenger and promised a monetary reward for committing the crime in Pavlograd. On the instructions of their Russian handler, the traitors manufactured explosives and detonated them near the object he had designated," police said.

Attacks on recruiting authorities are rare but not unheard of in Ukraine and Russia as tensions run high over efforts to mobilise men for the war.

On Saturday, a blast in Rivne, a town in northwest Ukraine, killed one person and wounded six at a centre responsible for drafting men into the army, outmanned by its Russian opponents.

Authorities did not say what caused the explosion or reveal details of the casualties.

Earlier Saturday, a man with a hunting rifle shot dead a Ukrainian army recruitment soldier and escaped with a conscript before both were caught by police, according to authorities.