Russia has called a Ukrainian drone attack on a vocational school in the occupied Luhansk region that left at least six people dead and dozens more wounded a “monstrous crime” and requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the incident.
Leonid Pasechnik, the Kremlin-backed head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said dozens of students and faculty were inside the Starobilsk Vocational School and its dormitory in the town of Starobilsk at the time of the attack early Friday.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, which operates in Luhansk and other occupied parts of Ukraine, said first responders were sifting through the rubble of the destroyed educational facility in search of bodies.
By Friday afternoon, President Vladimir Putin said six people had been confirmed killed without specifying whether they were students or faculty. Pasechnik had said earlier that students attending the vocational school were ages 14 to 18.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the attack in Starobilsk, which has been under Russian control since March 2022, as a “monstrous crime” and said that “those responsible for this crime must be punished.”
“Overall, the Kyiv regime must be punished,” Peskov told reporters during a daily briefing on Friday.
There was no immediate response from Ukraine.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative body, said Ukraine launched a total of four drones at the Starobilsk Vocational School. The law enforcement body opened a criminal probe into terrorism.
Russia requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later on Friday following the deadly attack.
“In carrying out this atrocity against children in Starobelsk, the Kyiv regime and its sponsors assume complete responsibility for escalating the hostilities and sabotaging political and diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Moscow claimed to annex parts of occupied Ukraine, including Luhansk, following sham referendums staged by Kremlin-backed officials in September 2022.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Ukraine said Friday it carried out a drone attack against the Slavneft oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region. It previously claimed to have struck the facility on May 8.
