KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Competing claims have arisen regarding a deadly attack on a boarding school in Sudzha, located in Russia's Kursk region, which has reportedly been under Ukrainian control for the past five months. Both Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of initiating the strike that resulted in casualties.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on Saturday night that the assault led to the deaths of four individuals, with another four seriously injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russian forces bombed the boarding school where civilians were taking shelter and preparing for evacuation. Ukrainian servicemen successfully rescued 84 people trapped beneath the rubble of the building.
In light of the attack, those requiring further medical assistance were evacuated to healthcare facilities within Ukraine, as per the General Staff's announcement. In stark contrast, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed early Sunday that it was actually Ukrainian forces that launched a missile strike on the boarding school, asserting that the missiles originated from Ukraine's Sumy region.
Amid these developments, the death toll from a separate Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Poltava has risen to 12, including the tragic loss of two children, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. This incident resulted in injuries to 17 individuals and involved a five-story residential building, highlighting the ongoing humanitarian crisis stemming from the conflict.
In a broader context of escalating tensions, Moscow reportedly dispatched 55 drones into Ukraine overnight on Sunday. Ukrainian officials stated that their Air Force managed to destroy 40 of these drones during the overnight operations. Moreover, a further 13 drones were noted as “lost,” which is believed to be a result of electronic jamming efforts.
Additionally, in the Kharkiv region, two individuals were reported injured due to a drone attack, with regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov providing the update. On the Russian side, the Defense Ministry indicated that five Ukrainian drones were intercepted and shot down across five western Russian regions, including three over the Kursk region, with one each over the Belgorod and Bryansk regions. In a troubling incident, a man was killed due to a drone strike in the Belgorod region, as confirmed by regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
