The death toll from a Ukrainian strike on a college in a Russian-occupied town in eastern Ukraine has risen to 18, according to Russian officials. The strike, which was launched overnight on Thursday to Friday, also wounded 42 people in Starobilsk, in the occupied Lugansk region. Unfortunately, some individuals are still trapped under the debris, and rescue efforts are ongoing.
The Ukrainian government has denied targeting civilians, insisting that it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in the Starobilsk area. However, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the army to prepare a response to the attack. The Russian emergency ministry two more bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, bringing the total number of victims to 60, with 18 confirmed dead.
Video footage shared by the ministry showed dozens of rescuers sifting through the rubble of a section of the five-storey dormitory building, which was reduced to rubble in the attack. Most of those killed and missing were young women born between 2003 and 2008, according to a list of casualties published by the Moscow-backed governor of the Lugansk region, Leonid Pasechnik. The governor expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, stating that the region and the entire country share the fate of these people and the pain of their families.
The college in Starobilsk is equivalent to a vocational school, typically catering to students aged 15 to 22 years. The town lies about 65 kilometres from the front line in eastern Ukraine and was captured by Russian forces in the early months of the offensive in 2022. The Lugansk region is almost entirely occupied by Russia, which claims it as its own. The situation remains tense, with Kyiv warning that it is expecting a major Russian missile attack, and the international community is closely monitoring the developments in the region.
As the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate, the humanitarian situation is becoming increasingly dire. The attack on the college in Starobilsk has highlighted the devastating consequences of the war on civilians, particularly young people. The international community must continue to call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and provide support to those affected by the war. The situation in Ukraine remains a pressing concern, and the world is watching with bated breath as the conflict unfolds.
