Ukraine, Russia trade blame over missile strike on Kursk school

Ukraine and Russia have traded blame over a missile strike in a boarding school housing people preparing for evacuation in a part of Russia’s Kursk region held by Ukrainian forces, killing at least four people.

Ukraine’s military has said that Russian forces are responsible, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the attack had destroyed the boarding school in the border town of Sudzha, “even though dozens of civilians were there”.

A statement by the Ukrainian military’s general staff on Saturday said that, as of 10 pm (8pm GMT), rescue efforts to clear rubble were proceeding.

Four people had been killed and 84 had been rescued or received medical assistance, the statement said. Four of the injured were in serious condition.

Russia blamed Kyiv for the deadly strike. “On February 1, the Ukrainian Armed Forces committed another war crime by launching a targeted missile strike on a boarding school in the city of Sudzha,” said a statement from Russia’s defence ministry.

Zelenskyy, writing in English on X, said the attack exposed Russia as “a state devoid of civility”.

“This is how Russia wages war: Sudzha, Kursk region, Russian territory, a boarding school with civilians preparing to evacuate,” Zelenskyy wrote. “A Russian aerial bomb. They destroyed the building even though dozens of civilians were there … This is how Russia waged war against Chechnya decades ago. They killed Syrians the same way. Russian bombs destroy Ukrainian homes the same way.“

Ukrainian forces have held swathes of the Kursk region since staging a major cross-border incursion last August.

Earlier on Saturday Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine, killing 15 people and damaging dozens of residential buildings as well as energy infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.

On his part, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed in the early hours of Sunday that it was Ukrainian forces that had launched a missile strike on the school, saying that the missiles were launched from Ukraine’s Sumy region.

Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Poltava on Saturday rose to 14, including two children, local officials said Sunday. Seventeen people were injured in the attack on the five-story building, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

Moscow sent 55 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 40 drones were destroyed during the overnight attacks. A further 13 drones were “lost”, likely having been electronically jammed.

Two people were wounded in a drone attack in the Kharkiv region, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Sunday.

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