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President Volodymyr Zelensky says Moscow has bombed a boarding school in Ukrainian-occupied Russia where civilians were sheltering and preparing to evacuate. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainian army said four people were killed and dozens – many of them elderly – were injured in the town of Sudzha in the Kursk region, which has been under Ukrainian control for five months.<\/p>\n
More than 80 people are reported to have been rescued from the building. <\/p>\n
The BBC has not been able to confirm Ukraine’s claim that it was a deliberate Russian attack using a guided aerial bomb. Moscow blamed Ukraine for the bombing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Zelensky posted on X that the incident exposed Russia as “a state devoid of civility”.<\/p>\n
“This is how Russia wages war – Sudzha, Kursk region, Russian territory, a boarding school with civilians preparing to evacuate,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
“A Russian aerial bomb. They destroyed the building even though dozens of civilians were there.”<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian army’s general staff posted on Telegram that four people had died and that 84 civilians were rescued, adding that “the strike was carried out on purpose”.<\/p>\n
For its part, the Russian defence ministry said Ukraine carried out Saturday’s attack, which it described as a targeted missile strike.<\/p>\n
Ukraine launched a lightning thrust into the Russian oblast of Kursk last August, taking Russian border guards by surprise.<\/p>\n
The government in Kyiv made it clear at the time that it had no intention of holding on to the territory seized, merely to use it as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations.<\/p>\n
Zelensky likened Saturday’s strike to “how Russia waged war against Chechnya decades ago. They killed Syrians the same way. Russian bombs destroy Ukrainian homes the same way”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n