World

Russia and Ukraine trade blame over attack on shelter at boarding school

Four people were killed in the incident in Sudzha, a city in Russia’s Kursk region under Ukrainian control.

People sit on beds after evacuation from the frontline at a centre for displaced people in Pavlohrad, Ukraine (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
People sit on beds after evacuation from the frontline at a centre for displaced people in Pavlohrad, Ukraine (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of a deadly attack on a boarding school in Sudzha, a city in Russia’s Kursk region that has been under Ukrainian control for five months.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Saturday night that four people were killed and a further four were seriously injured in the strike, with 84 people rescued by Ukrainian servicemen from the rubble of the building.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow had bombed the boarding school where civilians were sheltering and preparing to evacuate.

But the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed in the early hours of Sunday that it was Ukrainian forces that had launched a missile strike on the school, saying missiles were launched from Ukraine’s Sumy region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Russia had bombed the school (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Russia had bombed the school (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Poltava on Saturday rose to 14, including two children, local officials said.

Join the Irish News Whatsapp channel

Seventeen people were injured in the attack on the five-storey building.

Moscow sent 55 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. Forty were destroyed and a further 13 drones were “lost”, likely having been electronically jammed.

Two people were injured in a drone attack in the Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Sunday.

In Russia, the defence ministry said five Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight in five regions of western Russia: three over the Kursk region, and one each over the Belgorod and Bryansk regions.

A man was killed in a drone strike in the Belgorod region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.