People clean an area after Russian airstrike in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, May 7, 2022.
Highlights
- At least 60 people are feared dead after a school was bombed on Sunday in eastern Ukraine.
- The school sheltered about 90 people in the basement.
- The incident comes ahead of Victory Day, Russia's most patriotic of dates.
At least 60 people are feared dead after a school was bombed on Sunday in eastern Ukraine, reported news agency AFP. As per news agency AP, the school sheltered about 90 people in the basement as Moscow’s invading forces kept up their barrage of cities, towns and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine. The incident comes ahead of Victory Day, Russia's most patriotic of dates, marking the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.
The governor of Luhansk province, one of two areas that make up the eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas, said the school in the village of Bilohorivka caught fire after Saturday’s bombing. Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, he said.
“Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,” Gov. Serhiy Haidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Russian shelling also killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, he said.
To demonstrate success, Moscow was aiming to complete its conquest of the besieged port city of Mariupol in time for Victory Day celebrations on Monday. All the remaining women, children and older civilians who had been sheltering with Ukrainian fighters in a sprawling steel mill that is the city’s last defense holdout were evacuated Saturday.
