Putin orders retaliation after attack on student dormitory with 18 dead

The death toll from a drone attack on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine has risen to 18, with most of the victims being young women, Russian officials said on Saturday (23), following a heated UN debate over the case.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to prepare options for retaliation against Ukraine on Friday (22), after Moscow accused Kiev of what it described as a deliberate drone attack on a college in the city of Starobilsk.

Ukraine's military denied responsibility for the attack, saying it had struck an elite drone commando unit in the area and that its forces complied with international humanitarian law.

Putin said there were no military installations in the area. Reuters was unable to independently verify what happened.

At the site, this Saturday (23), a crane was working to remove rubble from a crack in the building.

Inside a destroyed classroom, bricks and dust covered rows of students' desks with "I love English" written on the wall. Elsewhere, a staircase was blocked by debris.

People trapped under rubble
Russia's state news agency RIA said the death toll had risen to 16, citing the emergency ministry.

Five people remained trapped under the rubble.

Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian administration in the region, published a preliminary list containing details of 11 victims, most of them women aged 19.

A local resident said the rockets had targeted an old base and the drones hit the student dormitory, causing fires.

At an emergency UN Security Council meeting called by Russia on Friday (22), Russia accused Ukraine of war crimes over the attack, while Kiev rejected the allegation.

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Several countries have requested access to the site, while UN officials have denounced all attacks on civilians, recalling a Russian missile attack on a UN warehouse in Ukraine this week that killed two workers and destroyed a million dollars in humanitarian aid.

Russia has targeted Ukraine's energy supplies and infrastructure, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks on oil facilities inside Russia this year, sometimes resulting in casualties. Both sides deny targeting civilians.

Debris dropped by drones caused a fire at an oil terminal in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and two people were injured, Russian authorities said early Saturday (23).

Ukraine's military said it hit Russia's Black Sea Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk and the nearby Grushova oil depot, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the military also struck a major chemical plant in Russia's Perm region.

Perm regional governor Dmitry Makhonin said earlier that an industrial facility, which he did not name, had been targeted by Ukrainian drones, but that they had been shot down and caused no damage.

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Source: CNN