Around 15 people still remain unaccounted for after a Ukrainian drone strike on a school dorm in the Russian town of Starobelsk, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that he has ordered the military to prepare retaliation for the attack.
At least 39 people were injured in the strike and six were killed, according to Putin. He ruled out the possibility that the school was hit by accident, noting that 16 Ukrainian drones hit the same location in three waves, with no military sites in the vicinity.
The Russian president slammed the incident as a “terrorist attack by the neo-Nazi regime,” vowing revenge.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry has been instructed to inform international organizations and the international community about this crime,” Putin said. “In such cases, statements from the Foreign Ministry alone would not suffice. Therefore, the Russian Defense Ministry has been ordered to submit its proposals.”
The strike hit the main academic building and dormitory of the Starobelsk Professional College, which teaches students aged 14 to 18. Acting head of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnik said 86 students were inside the facility at the time of the attack.
The rescue operation was interrupted at least once due to the threat of a new Ukrainian strike, according to the emergency services.
According to Pasechnik, the school was not the only target in what he described as a broader raid on the town. Starobelsk is located around 80 km north of Lugansk, the regional capital of the LPR, which broke away from Ukraine following the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev and formally voted to join Russia in a referendum in 2022.
The governor said administrative buildings, shops, and private homes were also damaged, with at least one additional person injured. He published images showing several badly damaged buildings, including the school, some of them still on fire.
Kiev considers the LPR part of Ukraine. In April, Ukrainian forces struck the Starobelsk administration building, injuring two pedestrians who were passing nearby.
Russian officials have accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians as part of what Moscow describes as a campaign of terror. Ukrainian officials have said economic damage is one of the main objectives of Kiev’s long-range drone strikes inside Russia, while also acknowledging that undermining public support for the government by affecting civilians is among their goals.
Ukrainian forces have intensified drone attacks in recent weeks. Last weekend, they launched the largest barrage targeting Moscow since the escalation of the conflict in 2022.