Russia blames Ukraine, vows retaliation as 16 killed in strike on student dorm
The death toll from a drone strike on a student dormitory in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, under Russian control, has risen to 16, most of the victims being young women, Russian officials announced Saturday, after a heated debate at the UN over the incident.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered his military to prepare retaliatory options against Ukraine after Moscow accused kyiv of what it described as a deliberate drone strike on a college in the city of Starobilsk.
Ukraine’s military has denied responsibility for the attack, saying it hit an elite drone command unit in the region and that its forces respected international humanitarian law. Putin said there were no military installations in the region.
Reuters was unable to independently verify what happened.
On site Saturday, a crane was working to remove rubble from a gaping hole in the building. Inside a destroyed classroom, rows of student desks covered in bricks and dust with “I love English” written on the wall. Elsewhere, a stairwell was blocked by debris.
Russia’s official RIA news agency reported that the death toll had risen to 16, citing the Emergency Situations Ministry. Five people were trapped under the rubble.
Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian administration in the region, released a preliminary list containing details of 11 victims, most of them women aged 19.
A local resident said rockets targeted a former base and drones then hit the student dormitory, causing fires.
At an emergency UN Security Council meeting convened by Russia on Friday, Russia accused Ukraine of war crimes following the incident, while Ukraine said it was a baseless claim that had not been independently verified.
Several countries have requested access to the site, while U.N. officials have denounced all attacks on civilians, recalling a Russian missile attack on a U.N. warehouse in Ukraine this week that killed two workers and destroyed $1 million worth of aid.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed in airstrikes far from the largely static front line in the country’s southeast, about a fifth of which is controlled by Russian forces.
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power supplies and infrastructure, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks on oil facilities in Russia this year, sometimes causing casualties. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
Falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil terminal at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and two people were injured, Russian officials said Saturday.
Ukraine’s military said it hit Russia’s Sheskharis oil terminal on the Black Sea in Novorossiysk and the nearby Grushova oil depot, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the military also hit a large chemical plant in Russia’s Perm region.
Perm regional governor Dmitry Makhonin said earlier that an industrial facility, which he did not name, had been targeted by Ukrainian drones, but that they had been shot down and caused no damage.
