21 confirmed killed as search op concludes after Ukrainian strike on Russian school dorm (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

23 May 2026

The Lugansk People’s Republic has declared two days of mourning on May 24-25 for the victims of the Ukrainian strike on the Starobelsk college dormitory, Governor Leonid Pasechnik has said.

The governor called the loss “irreparable” for the victims’ families, loved ones, and the entire region. He expressed condolences to the families of the 21 people killed and wished a swift recovery to everyone injured in the strike.

“This attack is pure evil, for which there is and can be no justification,” he said, adding that those who ordered and carried it out must face “deserved and inevitable punishment.”

The search and rescue operation has concluded at the Starobelsk college grounds, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has said. A total of 21 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, while 42 people were injured in the Ukrainian drone strike, according to the ministry’s final tally.

A commemorative event has been held in central Lugansk to honor the victims of the Ukrainian attack on the Starobelsk college. Activists with the local chapter of the Young Guard of United Russia, a youth wing of the party, laid flowers and lit candles at the ‘My Teacher’ sculpture located by the main building of the Lugansk State Pedagogical University.

The Ukrainian attack on the Starobelsk college and its lackluster coverage in the West have yet again exposed the pro-Kiev propaganda machine and double standards exercised in relation to the Ukraine conflict, Nikola Mirkovic, author and president of the French NGO West-East, has told RT.

Should a similar attack be perpetrated by Moscow, “we’d be talking about it night and day all over Western media,” Mirkovic said. The lack of coverage in the West could also be related to its potential involvement in the strike, he suggested.

“This has all the matter to consider it a war crime. I mean, international humanitarian law forbids deliberately targeting a civilian facility. And this is exactly what we’re seeing here,” Mirkovic said. “They don’t want to talk about this because also, if we dig a bit deeper, we would find fingerprints of maybe Western technology, Western munition, Western financing behind these bombings.”

Journalists from across “all the continents” have expressed readiness to travel to Starobelsk to film the scene of the Ukrainian attack, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told RIA Novosti. Earlier in the day, she said the BBC refused to visit the Russian town, while Japanese reporters had been barred from covering the incident altogether.

RT has spoken to one of the survivors of the Ukrainian attack, college student Maksim. He confirmed that the college was hit by multiple drones rather than other munitions, stating the incoming projectiles emitted distinctive engine sounds.

The young man said he was trapped under rubble in the initial attack, falling two stories from the fourth floor as he tried to escape the damaged building. He was also hit with a falling brick on his head and ultimately thrown out of the building by the shockwave of another drone that hit the location.

He suffered serious burns to his back as well as heavy bruising all over his body yet miraculously avoided more serious injuries.

The US Embassy in Kiev has warned Americans of an allegedly imminent “significant air attack” on the Ukrainian capital. The strikes will occur “any time over next 24 hours,” the mission claimed.

The capital of the Lugansk People’s Republic came under Ukrainian drone attack on Saturday, local governor Leonid Pasechnik has said. Two people have received light wounds when the kamikaze aircraft exploded near a flower shop and a pharmacy in central Lugansk, he wrote on Telegram, sharing images from the scene.

Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, a key figure in the negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, has strongly condemned the attack. He drew parallels between actions of the Ukrainian leadership and the Nazi Germany, as well as lashed out at the reaction to the incident by the “degenerates” from Denmark and Latvia at the UNSC.

“We are often kindhearted, forgetful, and forgiving. But just think what these people are capable of doing to us, to our children, if they win,” Medinsky wrote on his Telegram channel.

The Lugansk People’s Republic authorities have identified 17 fatalities in the Ukrainian attack, with 43 wounded and four others still unaccounted for, the governor’s office has said.

An impromptu memorial has emerged near the destroyed dorm. Footage filmed by RT crews at the scene shows locals leaving flowers and toys at the site to honor the victims of the Ukrainian attack.

There were never any UAV operators or military personnel in the building, a teacher who survived the strike on the Starobelsk dormitory told RT.

“There is never anyone there except children and the duty supervisor,” Elena told RT’s Murad Gazdiev, rejecting Ukrainian claims that the site was being used as a drone command center. “That night, the five-story dormitory was mostly filled with underage college students.” 

Elena said she realized immediately what was happening when a powerful blast shook the building.

“It was unbelievably terrifying. We didn’t know if they would keep striking us,” she said. “How can you fire at children?”

Rescue operations continue at the site of the attack. Psychologists are working with survivors and relatives of the victims, Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has said.

“It’s hard to look at the footage my colleagues are sending. Dead children, parents screaming,” she wrote on Telegram, adding that she is publishing the images “specifically for the international community, so they can see what is really happening.”

Lantratova added that surviving students told officials that Ukrainian drones “circled above them for a long time” and struck the dormitory repeatedly and deliberately. According to her, nearby administrative buildings, shops, and private homes were also damaged in the attack.

The death toll from the strike in Starobelsk has risen to 18 after rescuers recovered two more bodies from the rubble, EMERCOM has said.

Rescue workers have recovered four more bodies from the rubble of the collapsed dormitory, Russian EMERCOM said, bringing the confirmed death toll to 16, while 42 are listed as injured. The authorities say five people are still believed to be trapped under the debris.

The upper floors of the building, where students lived and slept, took the brunt of the destruction, RT’s Murad Gazdiev says. According to him, the fourth and fifth floors — apparently the first points of impact — housed dormitories for girls.

Ukraine has claimed the site was being used as a drone operator training center, while several European officials accused Moscow of spreading disinformation over the incident. Gazdiev said the scene itself contradicted those claims, pointing to scattered shoes, clothes, textbooks, blankets, teddy bears, and makeup buried under the debris.

Search teams are still combing through the rubble, under which at least nine people are believed to remain trapped.

RT crews in Starobelsk have filmed the aftermath inside the student dormitory, where drawings, make-up kits, textbooks, and stuffed animals are scattered across the rubble.

RT crews in Starobelsk have filmed rescue workers recovering victims from the rubble of the dormitory following the strike.

Warning: Distressing images.

The death toll in Starobelsk has risen to 12, with nine more people remaining under the rubble, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations has said.

RT senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev, reporting from the scene, says he has learned “distressing” details about the victims’ final hours, adding that some appeared to have survived the initial strike before later dying from their injuries.

The BBC has declined to send a reporter to the site of the Starobelsk tragedy, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakahrova has said, adding that CNN is “on vacation.”

Regional governor Leonid Pasechnik has updated the death toll to 11, saying that the deceased included eight women and three men. He also released the name list of the victims, all of which were between the ages of 19 and 22.

“The region and the whole country are living with the fate of these people and the pain of their families”, he said, adding that Russia “will never forgive” either those who orchestrated the attack or those who are trying to sweep the tragedy under the rug in the West.

The Ukrainian drones are once again trying to hit the site of the tragedy in Starobelsk even as rescue efforts are ongoing, Rodion Miroshnik, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry mission that tracks alleged Ukrainian war crimes, has said.

He added that due to the threat, first responders have to intermittently suspend operations as air defenses repel the attacks.

Moscow is arranging a visit to the site of the tragedy for foreign correspondents accredited in Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has announced. She expressed outrage over the “outright lies” circulated by Western diplomats at the UN Security Council over the Ukrainian strike.

She singled out Latvia, whose representative in the UN earlier refused to acknowledge Kiev’s responsibility, accusing Russia of spreading disinformation.

“I hope the BBC and CNN do not suddenly go on vacation,” Zakharova added.

Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission that tracks alleged Ukrainian war crimes, has released a video of a fire inside the dormitory, with screams heard in the background.

Eleven students remain unaccounted for after the Ukrainian strike on Starobelsk, Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the Lugansk People’s Republic, has said, adding that rescuers cleared debris through the night.

He added that psychologists and medical workers are assisting parents at a temporary accommodation point as families await updates. “These are terrible hours of waiting,” Pasechnik said. He added that volunteers, civic groups, and local residents have joined the efforts to support the families and emergency crews.

The death toll in the attack on the Starobelsk dormitory has increased to ten, with 38 people injured, according to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. The ministry added that it has dispatched additional forces to clear the rubble.

Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 348 Ukrainian drones between 8pm Moscow time on Friday and 7am on Saturday over several regions, as well as over the Azov and Black Seas, the Defense Ministry has said.

22 May 2026

Former US congressman Dennis Kucinich has described the Ukrainian drone strike on the Starobelsk college dormitory as a “war crime,” telling RT that the attack was “not an accident.” He said the key question now is the degree of responsibility Kiev will accept, while warning that “additional actors” may be seeking to widen the conflict.

“Russia has shown great patience in suffering one drone attack after another. I remember it was back during the closing months of the Biden administration, when there was escalation that brought us to the brink of a wider war,” he said. “This escalation is happening now, I truly believe, without any participation from the United States.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the Defense Ministry to “submit its proposals” for an appropriate response, “has the responsibility to demonstrate to the world that Russia’s children are not going to be fair game and that anyone who’s involved is going to pay a price,” Kucinich added.

Kucinich noted that the shift from the diplomatic track to the Defense Ministry should serve as a “signal that the rest of the NATO countries ought to pay attention to, and certainly in Ukraine they should pay attention to.”

The number of people injured in the Novorossiysk attack has risen to two, according to the regional operational headquarters.

A man has been injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk, officials in Krasnodar Region have said. According to the regional operational headquarters, several technical and administrative buildings at an oil depot caught fire following the attack.

Ukrainian forces launched multiple drone strikes on Energodar, the city hosting the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant – Europe’s largest nuclear facility – in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region on Friday, Mayor Maksim Pukhov has said.

On Friday alone, the attacks hit the grounds of School No. 5, the city administration building twice, the entrance area of an apartment block on Kurchatov Street, and local cell towers, according to Pukhov. Several civilian vehicles were also damaged, but no casualties were reported.

One of the transport arteries leading into Energodar has also come under constant Ukrainian attacks, the mayor said, warning that drone activity in the area remains “extremely high” and urging residents to observe safety precautions and heed air-raid alerts.

Two more drones were intercepted near Moscow shortly after midnight, according to Sobyanin. Last week, Kiev targeted the Russian capital with the largest drone raid in more than a year, in which three civilians were killed and more than a dozen were wounded.

READ MORE: RT recounts deadliest Ukrainian ‘terrorist strikes’ on Russian civilians

One person was killed in a “deliberate” Ukrainian drone strike on a civilian car in the town of Sevsk in Russia’s Bryansk Region, acting Governor Egor Kovalchuk has said.

At least eight long-range Ukrainian drones have been intercepted en route to the Russian capital over the past hour, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. There were no immediate reports of casualties, and emergency services were responding to the areas where debris fell.

Some of the statements made by Western diplomats at the emergency meeting amount to “mockery of the dead” and “dancing on the bones,” Nebenzia has said.

Nebenzia urged international organizations to condemn the “bloody terrorist attack” by the Ukrainian armed forces, warning that silence would be “tantamount to complicity.”

“Children are still buried under the rubble,” Nebenzia stressed, calling the strike “a war crime under international humanitarian law.” He rejected Kiev’s claims that air defenses or electronic warfare were to blame, and accused the West of “turning a blind eye” to crimes by the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia has told the Security Council that the strike on the Starobelsk dormitory was carried out “deliberately” at night “when the dormitory was full” in order to cause the highest possible number of casualties. He described the  strike as a “horrific terrorist attack” by the “neo-Nazi Kiev regime” and showed the gathering photographs from the scene.

“Schools must remain safe havens,” UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Vanessa Frazier has insisted.

The attack is yet another example of “terrible crimes” committed by the Ukrainian leadership, Italian war correspondent Andrea Lucidi has told RT, pointing out that Kiev has repeatedly used high-precision weaponry to target civilians. The only goal of such attacks is terrorizing Russia’s population, he said.

The fact that the attack came as the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky released footage of visiting a professional college in the town of Rovno as an unlikely coincidence, Lucidi suggested.

“Zelensky is acting like… a monster, like a psychopath, he doesn’t feel any empathy for other people, for other persons. How can he smile [at] students in the same moment where his soldiers and his cooperators from above attacked and killed other students from the other side of the front line. How can he [smile at] other students?” he said.

An emergency session of the UN Security Council, requested by Russia after the Ukrainian drone strike on the Starobelsk school dormitory, has just begun.

Moscow expects the international community to condemn the Ukrainian attack on the school, Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova told RT earlier in the day.

“We await the international community’s reaction. Under humanitarian law, these events cannot be described as anything other than a war crime,” she said.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry has shared footage from the scene, showing first responders digging through the rubble. An entire section of the building was destroyed by the strikes, leaving a pile of broken mortar and concrete slabs. At least 15 people still remain unaccounted for.

Former British senior diplomat Craig Murray has called the Starobelsk dormitory strike “a horrific attack” and “very plainly a war crime,” telling RT he feels for the families who still cannot find their loved ones under the rubble. He said the strike fits a pattern of increasingly “indiscriminate” NATO‑backed Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure that the world has paid “insufficient attention” to, and that Western media would likely “pretend it didn’t happen or claim it was a mistake.”

The head of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, has declared a regional emergency over the attack. The region has already received assistance from the federal government and humanitarian and volunteer groups to deal with the aftermath of the attack, the governor has said.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Ukrainian attacks have killed more than 8,000 civilians and injured almost 20,000, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry’s mission on Ukrainian war crimes. RT has compiled a recap of the deadliest Ukrainian “terrorist strikes” on Russian civilians here.

A student injured in the attack has told local media from her hospital bed that she was pinned under rubble after the blast.

“My legs were crushed… I woke up and started to call for help. People clearing the debris heard my screams and saved me,” she said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused Kiev of acting “like a terrorist cell” funded by Western countries, saying its “neo-Nazi” ideology targets “the most vulnerable categories, children of all ages, from toddlers to teenagers.” 

She compared the situation to Nazi crimes in World War II, calling it “absolute dehumanization.”

Here’s what Putin also said about the attack:  

• Fifteen people are still listed as missing

• The strike “was not accidental” and came in three waves, with 16 drones sent to the same target

• Kiev needs “crimes” like the dormitory strike to distract from its “catastrophic” situation at the front and then blame Russia for the consequences

• Western aid to Ukraine is being regularly “stolen” and forced mobilization sees people “caught on the streets like stray dogs and thrown to the front” 

• Putin urged Ukrainian soldiers not to carry out “criminal orders” from what he called an “illegitimate, corrupt junta in Kiev”

Putin said there were no military facilities near the college dormitory hit by Kiev, adding that Russia “cannot limit itself to statements in such a situation” and ordering the Defense Ministry to present options for a response.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the death toll from the attack has risen to six. He described the strike on the college as a “terrorist act” carried out by the “neo-Nazi regime in Kiev” and accused it of targeting children.

Rescuers are still clearing the rubble in Starobelsk, where some students remain trapped and “devastated” parents are waiting. RT’s Murad Gazdiev, reporting from the scene, shows school textbooks scattered across the street.

People in Lugansk have rushed to donate blood after news of the attack in Starobelsk, footage from a blood station shared by Lugansk 24 TV channel shows.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned Ukraine for the Starobelsk school strike, stressing that Western nations filling Kiev’s war chest share responsibility for its war crimes. Moscow said “the regime that targets children with terror is cynical,” and that the entire world can see that.

An emergency session of the UN Security Council, which Russia requested after the Ukrainian drone attack, will be convened later in the day at 7:00 PM GMT, according to the Russian mission to the United Nations.

The authorities estimate that 18 students remain trapped under the rubble, Human Rights Ombudsperson Yana Lantratova has confirmed to RT. She also said that 32 Ukrainian drones, including six jet-powered UAVs, were involved in the raid on the town.

RT’s Murad Gadziev earlier reported finding a large crater near the college, which he said suggested that a more powerful weapon than a regular kamikaze drone had struck the area.

Seven victims from Starobelsk have been delivered to the regional clinic in Lugansk, according to deputy chief surgeon Dmitry Kotukha. One of the patients is in his late 40s, while the rest are young adults, he said. The condition of one victim is critical at the moment, the doctor said.

The international community “must condemn” the Ukrainian drone strike on a dormitory in Lugansk because “students should not be targeted in any conflict,” Indian journalist Manish Jha, Editor at TV9 Network, has told RT. Jha, who said he had visited Donbass multiple times as a journalist, argued that attacks on civilian infrastructure had “become a trend” and claimed Kiev was trying to “draw attention from the international community” as global focus shifts toward the Middle East. He also described the strike as “a pre-planned strategy to attack civilians.” 

Former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik claimed that “the EU and almost every single EU member state are responsible for these mass murders” through continued military support for Kiev. He alleged that “the non-elected regime in Brussels sponsors a non-elected regime in Kiev” and insisted that “there should be criminal investigations done and warrants for arrests against von der Leyen.” Krapivnik further argued that the strike was deliberate, saying: “This is not an accident. These are drone operators. They see where they’re going.”

Western nations funding Ukrainian war efforts bear responsibility for the civilian deaths in Starobelsk, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has told RT.

“We realize that Ukraine did not do that independently. It definitely used intelligence provided by Western partners and used weapons bought with money mostly paid for by the European Union,” he said. “There is no way Western nations will take responsibility. Our task is to make sure that normal nations learn the truth about the crime committed overnight.”

The regional Emergencies Ministry has released photos showing the continuation of the rescue operation.

Mainstream Western media continue to largely ignore the Ukrainian attack on Starobelsk. One exception is Reuters, which reported it about an hour ago.

Pro-Ukrainian social media accounts are disseminating a fabricated document falsely claiming that the school was housing military personnel, Starobelsk municipality head Vladimir Cherneev has warned.

“The EU is a terrorist regime. The people that run the EU are terrorists,” former senior Pentagon security analyst Michael Maloof has told RT, reacting to the Ukrainian drone strike on a school dormitory in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic. Maloof argued that blaming Ukraine alone is “not enough,” accusing Western governments of directly backing attacks on Russian civilians. “[Ursula] von der Leyen is swimming in human blood, in blood of children,” he said, calling for criminal investigations and arrest warrants against the European Commission president and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

“The West is run by genocidal maniacs,” Maloof added, describing Western governments as a “unified Nazi regime.” He claimed that the US and its allies provide intelligence and operational support for Ukrainian strikes, alleging that “the HIMARS are American” and “the intelligence is all coming from America, from the Five Eyes.” Referring to the conflict with Russia, Maloof said: “We didn’t destroy the Nazis 87 years ago… whatever was left of them went underground, and now they’re back.”

Maloof also accused Western media of ignoring attacks on Russian civilians. “They want to ignore it,” he said, arguing that when Moscow retaliates by striking Ukrainian military facilities, “all you’re going to hear is ‘Russia attacked Ukraine,’” with “no reason why” mentioned in coverage.

The number of juvenile victims in Starobelsk currently stands at 36, including nine who are being treated at medical facilities, Lugansk children’s rights ombudsman, Inna Shvenk, has told the media. The condition of three children is serious, she reported. Additionally, 18 families have requested help finding their missing children, the official added.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski said things are “looking up” for Kiev. “We hope that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin recalculates now that Ukraine has been granted additional resources by the European Union and that weapons are flowing for which Europe pays from the United States.”

Several Ukrainian drones targeting Russia have crashed in Baltic countries, forcing the Lithuanian defense minister to resign and Estonia to scramble a jet to shoot one down – all the while blaming Russia. Officials in Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania have said Kiev should do a better job planning its attacks.

“I am incredibly afraid of some provocation that may trigger a mechanism that will then be unstoppable,” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said at a press conference on Thursday.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson earlier suggested that NATO could “direct” Ukrainian drone strikes to avoid tensions.

An RT correspondent at the scene has found what appears to be part of the engine of one of the Ukrainian drones. It landed in a campus park right next to the sculpture of Ostap Bender, the character from popular early Soviet satirical books by writers Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov.

The head of Russia’s presidential Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev, has sent a letter to UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk, the Russian official’s office has said. Moscow expects the UN to “designate the incident as a war crime by the Kiev regime” and to act to stop such atrocities, the statement read.

Ukrainian drone attacks such as the raid on Starobelsk are largely financed with EU taxpayers’ money, independent Dutch journalist Sonja van den Ende has told RT.

Western military aid to Kiev has been framed by EU and NATO members as a way to strengthen Ukraine’s position in any future peace negotiations. Moscow, however, has argued that continued arms deliveries only prolong the conflict and encourage further cross-border attacks.

Russia has repeatedly floated a ceasefire conditioned on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from all of Donbass. Kiev has rejected the proposals, stating that no territorial compromises are possible.

Oksana, 22, is one of the people missing after the Starobelsk strikes, her boyfriend has told RT. She was last seen by her sister as she was trying to flee the college dorm following the initial drone attack at around 1 AM local time. She was reportedly struck in the leg with shrapnel and became lost in the chaos. Oksana is an adult student who wants to become a school teacher.

Four people seriously injured in Starobelsk have been airlifted to Republican Clinical Hospital in Lugansk, the region’s health minister, Natalia Pashchenko, has told the media.

Ruptly has filmed ongoing firefighting efforts in the town.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described the incident as a “monstrous crime” for which “the Kiev regime has to be held accountable.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the silence of Ukraine’s Western backers over such attacks was especially notable given that many of them “routinely take at face value [Vladimir] Zelensky’s fakes about children purportedly abducted by Russia.”

Zakharova was referring to claims by Kiev and some of its Western backers that Russia’s evacuation of children from combat zones was criminal rather than a humanitarian effort. Moscow says it has been working through diplomatic channels to reunite children with relatives in Ukraine and other countries, and insists the scale of such cases has been exaggerated.

The latest casualty count is 39, some of whom are fatalities, Pasechnik has told the media, saying the exact death toll will be available later. He characterized the attacks as “unprecedented” and “inhumane” acts targeting civilians.

Rescue services have released footage of distraught relatives of the victims of the strike. Emergencies Ministry psychologists are helping them deal with the tragedy, the statement said.

“We expect international organizations to react to the deliberate strike on a civilian site where children live and study,” ombudsman Yana Lantratova has said, stressing that the incident can be described as a war crime. She was echoing similar remarks Miroshnik made to the media earlier.

The Starobelsk Professional College, a branch of Lugansk State Pedagogical University, trains older students in a range of blue-collar professions, including welding, electrical work, cooking, and crane operation. According to Rodion Miroshnik, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry’s mission investigating alleged Ukrainian crimes, the facility can accommodate more than 1,500 students, both minors and young adults.

The incident thus far has been largely ignored by Western mainstream media, with major outlets busy beating war drums for Ukraine instead. The New York Times has been writing about Ukrainian “killer robots” and The Guardian’s top story is NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urging the US-led bloc to spend even more on propping up Kiev.

The rescue operation had to be paused due to the threat of follow-up strikes, the Emergencies Ministry said after reporting that one body was recovered from under the rubble. Lantratova said at least four people were reportedly killed.

Local health officials said eight people injured in the incident are being treated in hospital, adding that three of them are considered to be in a serious condition.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry shared a video showing rescue workers responding to the incident. Footage showed part of the five-story dorm building collapsed to the second floor. Local governor Pasechnik said there were 86 students inside at the time of the attack, which he said injured 35 people.

Russian human rights ombudsman Yana Lantratova said an adult worker was with the children at the dorm.

The acting governor of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, has reported a Ukrainian drone strike on a school in Starobelsk, a town located around 80 km north of regional capital Lugansk. The incident was part of a broader raid that damaged civilian infrastructure and private residences, the official said, sharing images of the damage on social media.