Kiev's response after being accused of bombing a high school. An elite unit of the Russian army was targeted
The Ukrainian army on Friday rejected Russian accusations that it had attacked a student dormitory in the occupied city of Starobilsk in the Luhansk region, calling them “manipulation”, and said it targeted the command of an elite drone control unit, reports Reuters and AFP, quoted by Agerpres.
The General Staff in Kyiv announced on Facebook that during the night from Thursday to Friday it struck a “headquarters” of the “Rubicon” drone unit, located in the area of the city of Starobilsk, where – according to Moscow – at least six people were killed by a strike on a high school.
“Ukraine carries out strikes on military infrastructures and installations used for military purposes, scrupulously respecting the norms of international humanitarian law,” states the message of the Ukrainian General Staff published on social networks.
The Ukrainian publication Tribune reported that explosions were heard last night in Starobilsk, and locals broadcast on social media about a drone attack and a strike on a military base.
Kiev forces struck the student dormitory of the Starobilsk Pedagogical College “at night, while the students were sleeping,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier, warning that the Russian Defense Ministry would prepare a response to the attack.
According to him, six people were killed and another 15 are reported missing, while approximately 40 were injured following the Ukrainian attack in the Moscow-controlled Luhansk region, a balance sheet transmitted by the Russian authorities and picked up by international news agencies.
The pro-Russian authorities in Luhansk declared that, at the time of the attack, there were 86 young people between the ages of 14 and 18 in that building.
The Russian Foreign Ministry previously accused Kiev of aggravating the situation and undermining diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict, and said it would demand the convening of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
