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At least six killed in Ukrainian drone strike on Russian school dorm (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

The attack on the college in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic was not accidental, President Vladimir Putin has said

Published 22 May, 2026 08:38 | Updated 22 May, 2026 20:10

At least six people have been killed, 15 remain missing, and dozens more – most of them minors – have been injured 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, which teaches students aged 14 to 18, 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 86 students were inside the facility at the time of the attack.

Russia’s Human Rights Ombudsperson Yana Lantratova cited preliminary reports that at least four people were killed in the incident.

Emergency services reported recovering one body before pausing the operation due to concerns of a “double tap” Ukrainian strike.

22 May 2026
19:49 GMT
“Children are still buried under the rubble,” Nebenzia stressed, calling the strike “a war crime under international humanitarian law.” He rejected Kiev’s claims that air defenses or electronic warfare were to blame, and accused the West of “turning a blind eye” to crimes by the Ukrainian armed forces.
19:40 GMT
Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia has told the Security Council that the strike on the Starobelsk dormitory was carried out “deliberately” at night “when the dormitory was full” in order to cause the highest possible number of casualties. He described the strike as a “horrific terrorist attack” by the “neo-Nazi Kiev regime” and showed the gathering photographs from the scene.
19:25 GMT
“Schools must remain safe havens,” UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Vanessa Frazier has insisted.
19:11 GMT
The attack is yet another example of “terrible crimes” committed by the Ukrainian leadership, Italian war correspondent Andrea Lucidi has told RT, pointing out that Kiev has repeatedly used high-precision weaponry to target civilians. The only goal of such attacks is terrorizing Russia’s population, he said.
The fact that the attack came as the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky released footage of visiting a professional college in the town of Rovno as an unlikely coincidence, Lucidi suggested.
“Zelensky is acting like… a monster, like a psychopath, he doesn’t feel any empathy for other people, for other persons. How can he smile [at] students in the same moment where his soldiers and his cooperators from above attacked and killed other students from the other side of the front line. How can he [smile at] other students?” he said.
19:06 GMT
An emergency session of the UN Security Council, requested by Russia after the Ukrainian drone strike on the Starobelsk school dormitory, has just begun.
18:51 GMT
Moscow expects the international community to condemn the Ukrainian attack on the school, Russia’s newly appointed human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova told RT earlier in the day.
“We await the international community’s reaction. Under humanitarian law, these events cannot be described as anything other than a war crime,” she said.
17:51 GMT
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has shared footage from the scene, showing first responders digging through the rubble. An entire section of the building was destroyed by the strikes, leaving a pile of broken mortar and concrete slabs. At least 15 people still remain unaccounted for.
17:47 GMT
Former British senior diplomat Craig Murray has called the Starobelsk dormitory strike “a horrific attack” and “very plainly a war crime,” telling RT he feels for the families who still cannot find their loved ones under the rubble. He said the strike fits a pattern of increasingly “indiscriminate” NATO‑backed Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure that the world has paid “insufficient attention” to, and that Western media would likely “pretend it didn’t happen or claim it was a mistake.”
17:36 GMT
The head of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, has declared a regional emergency over the attack. The region has already received assistance from the federal government and humanitarian and volunteer groups to deal with the aftermath of the attack, the governor has said.
17:31 GMT
READ MORE: RT recounts deadliest Ukrainian ‘terrorist strikes’ on Russian civilians

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Ukrainian attacks have killed more than 8,000 civilians and injured almost 20,000, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry’s mission on Ukrainian war crimes. RT has compiled a recap of the deadliest Ukrainian “terrorist strikes” on Russian civilians here.

22 May 2026
08:31 GMT
The acting governor of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, has reported a Ukrainian drone strike on a school in Starobelsk, a town located around 80 km north of regional capital Lugansk. The incident was part of a broader raid that damaged civilian infrastructure and private residences, the official said, sharing images of the damage on social media.
© Leonid Pasechnik
© Leonid Pasechnik
08:33 GMT
The Russian Emergencies Ministry shared a video showing rescue workers responding to the incident. Footage showed part of the five-story dorm building collapsed to the second floor. Local governor Pasechnik said there were 86 students inside at the time of the attack, which he said injured 35 people.
Russian human rights ombudsman Yana Lantratova said an adult worker was with the children at the dorm.
08:34 GMT
The rescue operation had to be paused due to the threat of follow-up strikes, the Emergencies Ministry said after reporting that one body was recovered from under the rubble. Lantratova said at least four people were reportedly killed.
Local health officials said eight people injured in the incident are being treated in hospital, adding that three of them are considered to be in a serious condition.
08:36 GMT
The incident thus far has been largely ignored by Western mainstream media, with major outlets busy beating war drums for Ukraine instead. The New York Times has been writing about Ukrainian “killer robots” and The Guardian’s top story is NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urging the US-led bloc to spend even more on propping up Kiev.
08:50 GMT
The Starobelsk Professional College, a branch of Lugansk State Pedagogical University, trains older students in a range of blue-collar professions, including welding, electrical work, cooking, and crane operation. According to Rodion Miroshnik, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry’s mission investigating alleged Ukrainian crimes, the facility can accommodate more than 1,500 students, both minors and young adults.
Students of Starobelsk Professional College. Image from social media.
09:03 GMT
“We expect international organizations to react to the deliberate strike on a civilian site where children live and study,” ombudsman Yana Lantratova has said, stressing that the incident can be described as a war crime. She was echoing similar remarks Miroshnik made to the media earlier.
09:08 GMT
Rescue services have released footage of distraught relatives of the victims of the strike. Emergencies Ministry psychologists are helping them deal with the tragedy, the statement said.
© EMERCOM
09:13 GMT
The latest casualty count is 39, some of whom are fatalities, Pasechnik has told the media, saying the exact death toll will be available later. He characterized the attacks as “unprecedented” and “inhumane” acts targeting civilians.
09:31 GMT
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described the incident as a “monstrous crime” for which “the Kiev regime has to be held accountable.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the silence of Ukraine’s Western backers over such attacks was especially notable given that many of them “routinely take at face value [Vladimir] Zelensky’s fakes about children purportedly abducted by Russia.”
Zakharova was referring to claims by Kiev and some of its Western backers that Russia’s evacuation of children from combat zones was criminal rather than a humanitarian effort. Moscow says it has been working through diplomatic channels to reunite children with relatives in Ukraine and other countries, and insists the scale of such cases has been exaggerated.
09:33 GMT
Four people seriously injured in Starobelsk have been airlifted to Republican Clinical Hospital in Lugansk, the region’s health minister, Natalia Pashchenko, has told the media.
Ruptly has filmed ongoing firefighting efforts in the town.