MOSCOW, May 22 (Reuters) – Russian authorities said at least four people were killed and 35 children were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack overnight on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.
Reuters was unable to independently verify what happened and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which wants to recapture Luhansk, one of four eastern regions that Moscow unilaterally claimed as its own in 2022, in what Kiev denounced as an illegal land grab.
Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.
Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, said 86 teenagers aged between 14 and 18 were sleeping inside the dormitory belonging to the Starobilsk faculty of Luhansk Pedagogical University when Ukrainian drones attacked them during the night.
Leonid Pasechnik, the top Russian official in Luhansk, said two people had been pulled from the rubble and that rescue teams were still searching for children trapped under the rubble.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called for those responsible to be punished.
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‘This is a monstrous crime. An attack on an educational institution where children and young people are present,’ Peskov told reporters.
‘The most important thing now is to take steps to clear the rubble and provide assistance to those still trapped beneath it.’
Photographs and videos released by Russian authorities showed rescuers pulling a man on a stretcher from the rubble, severely damaged buildings — one of which appeared to have partially collapsed — and fires still burning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised retaliation last week after placing red roses in the rubble of an apartment building in Kiev where a Russian missile attack killed 24 people, including three children.
