Russia says 16 killed in strike on student dorm that it blamed on Ukraine
May 23 (Reuters) – The death toll in a drone attack on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine has risen to 16, with most of the victims being young women, Russian officials said on Saturday, following a heated U.N. debate over the incident.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military on Friday to prepare retaliatory options against Ukraine after Moscow accused Kiev of what it described as a deliberate drone attack on a university in the town of Starobilsk.
The Ukrainian military denied responsibility for the attack, saying it hit an elite drone command unit in the region and that its forces complied with international humanitarian law. Putin said there were no military facilities in the region.
Reuters could not independently confirm what happened.
A crane was at the scene Saturday working to remove debris from a large gap in the building. Inside a shattered classroom, bricks marked “I love English” on the walls and student desks covered in dust. Elsewhere, a stairwell was blocked by debris.
IT WAS REPORTED THAT 9 PEOPLE WERE STRAPPED UNDER ENLOSIS
Russia’s state news agency RIA reported that the death toll had risen to 16, citing the emergency ministry. 5 people were trapped under the rubble.
Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian-established administration in the region, published a preliminary list containing details of 11 victims, most of whom were 19-year-old women.
A local resident said rockets targeted an old base and then drones hit a student dormitory, causing a fire.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called by Russia on Friday, Russia accused Ukraine of war crimes over the incident, while Ukraine said this was a baseless allegation that had not been independently verified.
While many countries have called for access to the site, UN officials condemned all attacks on civilians and recalled this week’s Russian missile attack on a UN warehouse in Ukraine that killed two workers and destroyed $1 million worth of aid.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed in air strikes far from the largely static front line in the southeast of the country, about a fifth of which are controlled by Russian forces.
While Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy resources and infrastructure, Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on oil facilities in Russia this year, sometimes leading to casualties. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
Debris falling from drones sparked a fire at an oil terminal in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, injuring two people, Russian officials said early Saturday.
While the Ukrainian army said that Russia hit the Sheskharis Black Sea oil terminal in Novorossiysk and the nearby Grushova oil depot, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the army hit a large chemical plant in Russia’s Perm region.
Perm regional governor Dmitry Makhonin said that an industrial facility, which he had not previously named, was targeted by Ukrainian drones, but they were hit and did not cause any damage.
(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov, Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Philippa Fletcher)
