The number of victims of Friday’s drone attack on a school in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine has risen to at least six. Dozens of people are injured and 15 people are missing, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced. The head of the Kremlin condemned the strike and ordered the Ministry of Defense to prepare proposals for retaliatory measures. In response, Kyiv confirmed the attack, but according to him, the military headquarters was hit. He denied attacking civilians. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
The Russian-appointed governor of the Luhansk region, Leonid Paschnik, previously said on social networks that the academic building and dormitory of the school in the city of Starobiľsk were attacked by Ukrainian drones at night. According to him, there were 86 teenagers aged 14 to 18 in the dormitory at that time. He initially reported four dead.
“It is currently known that six people have died, 39 have been injured and 15 people are missing, with the search of the wreckage still ongoing.” Putin said at a meeting with graduates of the presidential program Time of Heroes, the goal of which is to get veterans of the battles in Ukraine into public positions.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement that the military intervened in the attack “one of the headquarters of the Rubikon unit” in the area of the city of Starobiľsk. According to AFP, the staff claimed that Russia in its media “is actively spreading misleading information about alleged attacks by Ukrainian armed forces on civilian infrastructure objects”.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation had previously accused Ukraine of carrying out four drone strikes on the building, causing it to practically collapse. According to Putin, there are no military installations near the dormitory. He described the attack as terrorist. Starobiľsk is located approximately 65 kilometers from the front line in eastern Ukraine. Russian troops occupied the city shortly after the invasion began in 2022.
Putin also admitted on Friday at the mentioned event broadcast on television, according to the TASS agency, that Russia has difficulties in the field of fighting in Ukraine. “There are many problems,” he said, saying that he knows the current situation in the field thoroughly. He also declared that Russia has always overcome any difficult tests and will overcome them this time as well.
