At least six people were killed and around 40 injured by a Ukrainian drone strike on a high school in the Russian-held region, the Russian president announced.
At the time of the strike, 86 students aged between 14 and 18 were in the dormitory of the school, which collapsed, Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement, denouncing the “barbaric attack”.
According to the Russian president, there are six dead and 39 injured, while 15 people are missing.
Retaliation for the “terrorist attack”
Putin called the strike in Luhansk a “terrorist attack”, insisting it was “not accidental”. “I asked the Ministry of Defense to prepare options for retaliation,” he added, according to Reuters. There is currently no information on the identity of the victims. The search for survivors continues.
Russia has called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council for today, at 11:00 PM (Greece time).
According to Moscow, the attack took place at night, with four Ukrainian drones targeting the building, which belongs to the Luhansk Pedagogical University, in the city of Starobilsk.
“None of the people in the building participated in, nor could participate in, combat and there is no military installation nearby,” added the statement, which also accuses Western countries of “providing information to the Ukrainian armed forces and helping them hit their targets.”
Luhansk governor Leonid Pasetsnik posted photos of damaged buildings on social media: one was on fire and partially collapsed, while the other had broken windows and blackened walls.
