Ukraine blames Russia for fatal missile strike on Kursk school
Ukraine and Russia blame each other as missile kills at least four in Kursk school
(about 11 hours later)
Kremlin claims Ukrainian military attacked site in area occupied by Kyiv since last August
Ukraine armed forces say 84 people were rescued or had medical help after strike in Russian territory that Kyiv holds
Ukraine’s military has said that Russian forces struck a boarding school housing people preparing for evacuation in a part of Russia’s Kursk region held by Ukrainian forces, killing at least four people.
Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for a deadly missile strike that killed at least four people in the dormitory of a boarding school situated in a part of Russia’s Kursk region held by Ukrainian forces.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack had destroyed the boarding school in the border town of Sudzha, “even though dozens of civilians were there”.
Some of the war’s fiercest battles in recent months have been taking place in the Kursk region that borders Ukraine, where Kyiv forces have held swathes of the land since staging a major cross-border incursion last August.
A statement by the Ukrainian military’s general staff on Saturday said that, as of 10pm (8pm GMT), rescue efforts to clear rubble were proceeding.
Ukraine’s armed forces said on the Telegram messaging app that Russia launched an aerial bomb from Russian territory that struck a boarding school in Sudzha, killing at least four. The boarding school housed people preparing for evacuation.
Four people had been killed and 84 had been rescued or received medical assistance, the statement said. Four of the injured were in a serious condition.
As of 10pm (8pm GMT) on Saturday, 84 people had been rescued or received medical assistance, the statement said. Four of the injured were in a serious condition. Rescue efforts to clear rubble were proceeding.
Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian account.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the attack on Sudzha, some about 7.5 miles (12km) from the border with Ukraine, showed how Russia fights the war.
Russia blamed Kyiv for the deadly strike. “On February 1, the Ukrainian Armed Forces committed another war crime by launching a targeted missile strike on a boarding school in the city of Sudzha,” said a statement from Russia’s defence ministry.
“They destroyed the building even though dozens of civilians were there,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “This is how Russia waged war against Chechnya decades ago. They killed Syrians the same way. Russian bombs destroy Ukrainian homes the same way.”
Zelenskyy, writing in English on X, said the attack exposed Russia as “a state devoid of civility”.
Russia’s defence ministry said early on Sunday on Telegram that Ukraine’s forces launched “a targeted missile strike on a boarding school in the city of Sudzha” from the territory of Ukraine.
“This is how Russia wages war: Sudzha, Kursk region, Russian territory, a boarding school with civilians preparing to evacuate,” Zelenskyy wrote. “A Russian aerial bomb. They destroyed the building even though dozens of civilians were there … This is how Russia waged war against Chechnya decades ago. They killed Syrians the same way. Russian bombs destroy Ukrainian homes the same way.“
Russia’s acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, also blamed Kyiv forces for the strike and said there was no reliable information yet about the number of potential victims.
A military spokesperson, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, had earlier said in a video posted on Facebook that nearly 100 people were under rubble at the site, which he said had housed mostly elderly and infirm people.
Ukraine’s military spokesperson, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, had earlier said in a video posted on Facebook that nearly 100 people were under rubble at the site, which he said had housed mostly elderly and infirm people.
At least one unofficial Russian military blogger said Ukrainian forces were behind the strike.
Reuters was not able to verify the claims by either side independently, and the scope of the attack remained unclear.
Ukrainian forces have held swathes of the Kursk region since staging a major cross-border incursion last August.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched with its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Thousands of civilians, however, have been killed, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
Earlier on Saturday Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine, killing 15 people and damaging dozens of residential buildings as well as energy infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.
In the central city of Poltava, Ukraine’s emergency services said a Russian missile had struck a residential building, killing 11 people and wounding 16, including four children.
They said 22 people were rescued from rubble and emergency crews worked well into the night. Rescue teams carried out the dead on stretchers.
Reuters TV footage showed thick columns of smoke rising from mounds of rubble outside the building, part of which was reduced to a twisted mass of metal and building materials.
Firefighters and dozens of rescuers were searching through rubble and carrying the dead out on stretchers.
In Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s north-east, one person was killed and four were wounded in a drone attack, the mayor said.
Three police officers were killed during the attacks as they patrolled streets in a village in the north-eastern region of Sumy, regional officials said.
