An airstrike on a school building in eastern Ukraine functioning as a bomb bunker left up to 60 people trapped under debris and presumed dead, Ukrainian officials reported, one day before a scheduled commemoration in Russia honoring the Soviet Union's triumph over Nazi Germany.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops have stepped up their efforts to centralize more areas in Ukraine ahead of Victory Day pride marches and pageantry Monday, which could see Putin officially admit that his country is in armed conflict with Ukraine for the first time, setting the stage for him to enlist more Russians into the battle.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, asked whether Putin's fellow countrymen knew the actual costs of a war he had attempted to disguise and cautioned that the dictatorship in Moscow had no red lines. So they're getting ready for anything.
Markarova described the conflict as violent. "Russia attacked a friendly neighboring country; the problem now is whether they are willing to see tens of thousands of people die in Ukraine with no cause at all," he said.
The airstrike on the school highlighted what U.S. authorities call Russia's army campaign's unlawful character, which they claim harms civilians.
As per Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the eastern Luhansk area, some 90 people were sheltering in the school underground in the eastern town of Bilohorivka when it was assaulted.
As flames engulfed the ruins, video from what was left of the school revealed firefighters crawling through the debris. According to Haidai, rescue workers fought for over four hours to put out a fire sparked by a bomb dropped by a Russian plane.
It was unknown how many individuals were inside or whether military officials were present at the time of the strike. As per Haidai, 30 victims were evacuated on Saturday, seven of them were injured, and two bodies were discovered in the wreckage.
Although several individuals who were rescued stated roughly 37 people were hiding there, he added it was likely that all 60 victims trapped under the debris were dead
Other expressions of camaraderie and a tentative, optimistic return to regularity elsewhere in Ukraine contrasted with the bloodshed, as more diplomats entered the nation to show solidarity for the administration.
First lady Jill Biden paid a surprise visit to the western part of the country, which has been mostly untouched by Russia's onslaught, interacting with evacuees at a processing facility near the Vysne Nemecke bridge near the Slovakian border.
