21 confirmed killed as search op concludes after Ukrainian strike on Russian school dorm (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
At least 21 people have been killed in what President Vladimir Putin has described as a deliberate Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on a school dormitory in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic.
The attack on the main academic building and dormitory of the Starobelsk Professional College was carried out in three waves, with 16 drones launched at the same target by the “neo-Nazi regime in Kiev,” according to Putin.
Governor Leonid Pasechnik said some 86 students were inside the facility at the time of the attack, staged overnight from Thursday to Friday. The incident prompted a large-scale search and rescue effort, with first responders digging through the rubble for nearly two days. The operation was declared concluded late on Saturday, when the bodies of all the victims were recovered from the partially collapsed building.
Russia’s UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, told an emergency Security Council session that the strike was carried out “deliberately” at night, when the dormitory was full, to maximize the number of casualties.
Key developments:
- Nebenzia accused Western diplomats of “turning a blind eye” to the crimes of the “neo-Nazi Kiev regime,” blasting their statements as “mockery” and “dancing on the bones” of the dead children.
- Moscow expects the international community to condemn the Ukrainian attack, which “cannot be described as anything other than a war crime,” Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, told RT.
- President Putin said there were no military facilities near the college dormitory, adding that Russia “cannot limit itself to statements in such a situation” and ordering the Defense Ministry to present options for a response.
- Kiev has called the college a legitimate target, claiming it hosted a Russian drone unit, despite numerous videos from the scene showing injured students and no sign of military activity. At the same time, Ukraine has launched new strikes against Russia, with at least one civilian killed in Bryansk Region and ten drones intercepted near Moscow.
- Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the Western media of ignoring the tragedy, saying the BBC refused to travel to Starobelsk, which she called “proof of the West’s deliberate lies.” She also claimed that Japanese journalists were barred from covering the incident.
- Zakharova added that Moscow is arranging a visit to the site for foreign correspondents accredited in Russia, noting that “a large number” have already expressed interest.
23 May 2026
21:27 GMTThe Lugansk People’s Republic has declared two days of mourning on May 24-25 for the victims of the Ukrainian strike on the Starobelsk college dormitory, Governor Leonid Pasechnik has said.
The governor called the loss “irreparable” for the victims’ families, loved ones, and the entire region. He expressed condolences to the families of the 21 people killed and wished a swift recovery to everyone injured in the strike.
“This attack is pure evil, for which there is and can be no justification,” he said, adding that those who ordered and carried it out must face “deserved and inevitable punishment.”
- 20:04 GMT
A commemorative event has been held in central Lugansk to honor the victims of the Ukrainian attack on the Starobelsk college. Activists with the local chapter of the Young Guard of United Russia, a youth wing of the party, laid flowers and lit candles at the ‘My Teacher’ sculpture located by the main building of the Lugansk State Pedagogical University.
- 18:46 GMT
The Ukrainian attack on the Starobelsk college and its lackluster coverage in the West have yet again exposed the pro-Kiev propaganda machine and double standards exercised in relation to the Ukraine conflict, Nikola Mirkovic, author and president of the French NGO West-East, has told RT.
Should a similar attack be perpetrated by Moscow, “we’d be talking about it night and day all over Western media,” Mirkovic said. The lack of coverage in the West could also be related to its potential involvement in the strike, he suggested.
“This has all the matter to consider it a war crime. I mean, international humanitarian law forbids deliberately targeting a civilian facility. And this is exactly what we’re seeing here,” Mirkovic said. “They don’t want to talk about this because also, if we dig a bit deeper, we would find fingerprints of maybe Western technology, Western munition, Western financing behind these bombings.”
- 18:34 GMT
Journalists from across “all the continents” have expressed readiness to travel to Starobelsk to film the scene of the Ukrainian attack, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told RIA Novosti. Earlier in the day, she said the BBC refused to visit the Russian town, while Japanese reporters had been barred from covering the incident altogether.
- 17:27 GMT
RT has spoken to one of the survivors of the Ukrainian attack, college student Maksim. He confirmed that the college was hit by multiple drones rather than other munitions, stating the incoming projectiles emitted distinctive engine sounds.
The young man said he was trapped under rubble in the initial attack, falling two stories from the fourth floor as he tried to escape the damaged building. He was also hit with a falling brick on his head and ultimately thrown out of the building by the shockwave of another drone that hit the location.
He suffered serious burns to his back as well as heavy bruising all over his body yet miraculously avoided more serious injuries.
- 17:23 GMT
The US Embassy in Kiev has warned Americans of an allegedly imminent “significant air attack” on the Ukrainian capital. The strikes will occur “any time over next 24 hours,” the mission claimed.
- 16:40 GMT
The capital of the Lugansk People’s Republic came under Ukrainian drone attack on Saturday, local governor Leonid Pasechnik has said. Two people have received light wounds when the kamikaze aircraft exploded near a flower shop and a pharmacy in central Lugansk, he wrote on Telegram, sharing images from the scene.
- 16:30 GMT
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, a key figure in the negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, has strongly condemned the attack. He drew parallels between actions of the Ukrainian leadership and the Nazi Germany, as well as lashed out at the reaction to the incident by the “degenerates” from Denmark and Latvia at the UNSC.
“We are often kindhearted, forgetful, and forgiving. But just think what these people are capable of doing to us, to our children, if they win,” Medinsky wrote on his Telegram channel.
- 15:47 GMT
The Lugansk People’s Republic authorities have identified 17 fatalities in the Ukrainian attack, with 43 wounded and four others still unaccounted for, the governor’s office has said.
