‘A monstrous crime’: Russia blames Ukraine after four killed in drone strike on school | World News

Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out a “monstrous crime” after an overnight drone attack on a school killed at least four and left 35 children wounded.

Kremlin officials blamed Kyiv for the overnight drone attack on the school in the Luhansk region.

Photos and videos released by Russian authorities showed rescue workers carrying a man out of the rubble on a stretcher.

Severely damaged buildings could also be seen, one of which appeared to have partially collapsed, as well as fires still burning.

Ukraine has yet to comment. Its forces are fighting to try to recapture Luhansk, one of four regions Russia unilaterally claimed as its own in 2022, in what Kyiv considers an illegal land grab.

Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, said 86 teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18 had been asleep inside the hostel belonging to Luhansk Pedagogical University’s Starobilsk school when Ukrainian drones attacked during the night.

Leonid Pasechnik, the top Russian-installed official in Luhansk, said two people had been pulled from the rubble.

Rescue workers were still looking for children trapped beneath the debris, he added.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said those responsible needed to be brought to justice.

“This is a monstrous crime. An attack on an educational institution where children and young people ⁠are present,” he said.

“The most important thing now ​is to take measures to clear the rubble ​and provide assistance to those who are still ​trapped beneath it.”

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised retribution after laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike had killed 24 people, including three children.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war.